[quote author=keithb link=board=todays;num=1054632144;start=0#0 date=06/03/03 at 05:22:24]Interesting to note that this word has a link to the Greek ‘phantos’, or ‘visible’.
So is ‘phantom’ derived from the same word? ...
A good source for such queries is Online Etymology Dictionary, which has the following to say on this matter :
phantasm - 13c., from O.Fr. fantasme, from L. phantasma "an apparition, specter," from Gk. phantasma "image, phantom," from phantazein "make visible," from phainein "to show."
phantasmagoria - 1802, name of a London "magic lantern" exhibition, alt. of Fr. phantasmagorie, from Gk. phantasma "image" + agora "assembly."
phantom - 13c., from O.Fr. fantesme, from V.L. *[fantauma/i], from L. phantasma (see phantasm). The ph- restored in Eng. c.1590.
fantasy - c.1350, from O.Fr. fantasie, from L. phantasia, from Gk. phantasia "appearance, image, perception, imagination," from phantazesthai "picture to oneself," from phantos "visible," from phainesthai "appear" (middle voice phainein "to show"), related to phaos, phos "light." Sense of "whimsical notion, illusion" is pre-1400, followed by that of "imagination," which is first attested 1539. Fantasize is from 1926.
As you see, your suspicions are here confirmed ; «fancy» (a contraction of «fantasy») and «phantom» are indeed, like the colonel’s lady and Judy O’Grady, sisters under the skin. The sense «imagination» cited for «fantasy» in the above, while rather infrequent in English, is all the more common as regards its cognates in other Germanic languages, as, e g, Swedish «fantasi», German «Phantasie»….
Henri
