fancy
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfæn.si/
rhymes: -ænsi
Forms: form: fancies
form: fancie
form: fansie
form: fant’sy
form: phancie
form: phancy
form: phansie
form: phansy
form: phant’sy
Etymology: From Middle English fansy, fantsy, a contraction of fantasy, fantasye, fantasie, from Old French fantasie, from Medieval Latin fantasia, from Late Latin phantasia (“an idea, notion, fancy, phantasm”), from Ancient Greek φαντασία (phantasía), from φαντάζω (phantázō, “to render visible”), from φαντός (phantós, “visible”), from φαίνω (phaínō, “to make visible”); from the same root as φάος (pháos, “light”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂nyéti, from the root *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”). Doublet of fantasia, fantasy, phantasia, and phantasy.
Senses: examples: text: […] But know that in the soul / Are many lesser faculties, that serve / Reason as chief; among these Fancy next / Her office holds […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 100-103:
text: In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove; / In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
ref: 1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 94:
text: Rustic females who habitually chew even pitch or spruce-gum are rendered thereby so repulsive that the fancy refuses to pursue the horror farther and imagine it tobacco […]
ref: 1861 December, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “A New Counterblast”, in Atlantic Monthly, page 700:
text: [I]n ten minutes more the sun was up, and blazing so fiercely, that we were glad to cool ourselves in fancy, by talking over salmon-fishings in Scotland and New Brunswick, and wadings in icy streams beneath the black pine-woods.
ref: 1871, Charles Kingsley, “The High Woods”, in At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies. […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 232:
text: For a time she could not soothe nor convince him that it was fancy.
ref: 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 221:
glosses: The imagination.
examples: text: How now, my lord! why do you keep alone, / Of sorriest fancies your companions making, / Using those thoughts which should indeed have died / With them they think on?
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: Her timbers were olden dreams dreamed long ago, and poets’ fancies made her tall, straight masts, and her rigging was wrought out of the people’s hopes.
ref: 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 88:
synonyms: conception
thought
idea
glosses: An image or representation of anything formed in the mind.
examples: text: When you have well viewed the Scenes and Devillish shapes of this Practicall Metamorphosis, and scan’d them in your serious thoughts, you will wonder at their audacious phant’sies, who seeme to hold Specificall deformities, or that any part can seeme unhandsome in their Eyes, which hath appeared good and beautifull unto their Maker […]
ref: 1650, John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d, 2nd edition, London, published 1653, Epistle Dedicatory, pp. 2-3:
text: I have always had a Fancy, that Learning might be made a Play and Recreation to Children […]
ref: 1693, [John Locke], “(please specify the section number)”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:
text: I dare say I am merely a foolish woman with a young girl's fancies.
ref: 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
synonyms: impression
glosses: An opinion or notion formed without much reflection.
examples: text: I had a fancy to learn to play the flute.
synonyms: word: boutade
word: caprice
word: capriccio
word: conceit
word: crotchet
word: delirament
word: fancy
word: fangle
word: figary
word: flisk
word: freak
word: kink
word: lark
word: maggot
word: megrim
word: spleen
word: toy
word: vagary
word: whim
word: whim-wham
word: whimsy
glosses: A whim.
examples: text: And they’ve taken a fancy to me, Aunt said. Kitto and the others. That means they like me.
ref: 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 36:
text: He took a fancy to her.
synonyms: word: affinity
word: bag
word: bent
word: cup of coffee
word: cup of joe
word: cup of tea
word: fancy
word: liking
word: partiality
word: penchant
word: predilection
word: predisposition
word: preference
word: proclivity
word: propension
word: propensity
word: shine
word: taste
word: thing
glosses: Love or amorous attachment.
examples: text: For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself / To fit your fancies to your father’s will;
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
glosses: The object of inclination or liking.
examples: text: Trainspotting is the fancy of a special lot.
text: the cat fancy
synonyms: word: hobby
word: amusement
word: avocation
word: diversion
word: divertisement
word: fancy
word: hobby
word: kill-time
word: pastime
word: pursuit
word: sport
glosses: Any sport or hobby pursued by a group.
examples: text: He fell out of favor with the boxing fancy after the incident.
text: […] at a great book sale in London, which had congregated all the Fancy, on a copy occurring, not one of the company but ourself knew what the mystical title-page meant.
ref: 1830 September, Thomas De Quincey, “Review of Life of Richard Bentley, D.D. by J.H. Monk, D.D.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume 28, number 171, p. 446, footnote:
synonyms: word: admirer
word: aficionado
word: buff
word: connoisseur
word: enthusiast
word: devotee
word: maniac
word: fan
word: fanatic
word: fancier
word: fancy
word: fiend
word: freak
word: geek
word: junkie
word: partisan
word: rooter
word: zealot
glosses: The enthusiasts of such a pursuit.
glosses: A diamond with a distinctive colour.
examples: 18th century, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving Land, cited in Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755,
London-pride is a pretty fancy, and does well for borders.
glosses: That which pleases or entertains the taste or caprice without much use or value.
examples: a French fancy; a fondant fancy; cream fancies
glosses: A bite-sized sponge cake, with a layer of cream, covered in icing.
examples: text: [He] ſung thoſe tunes to the ouer-ſchutcht huſwiues, that he heard the Car-men whiſtle, and ſware they were his fancies or his good-nights, […]
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], signature F3, verso:
glosses: A sort of love song or light impromptu ballad.
examples: text: When you have mastered plainsies, the regular jack game, and have learned all the rules, you will be ready to use this part of the book. A fancy is a variation of plainsies which usually requires more skill than plainsies does.
ref: 1970, Marta Weigle, Follow my fancy: the book of jacks and jack games, page 22:
text: When you get good at jacks, try adding a fancy. A fancy is an extra round at the end of a game. It makes the game a little harder. Jack Be Nimble, Around the World, or Black Widow are some fancies.
ref: 2002, Elizabeth Dana Jaffe, Sherry L. Field, Linda D. Labbo, Jacks, page 26:
glosses: In the game of jacks, a style of play involving additional actions (contrasted with plainsies).
examples: text: the yellow fancy; the cream fancy; the blood-red fancy
glosses: A colored neckerchief worn at prizefights to show support for a contender.
Derived terms: blood-red fancy
border fancy
catch someone's fancy
fanciful
fancy-free
fancy mouse
fancy rat
flight of fancy
strike someone's fancy
take a fancy to
take someone's fancy
tickle someone's fancy