Dictionary

fantasticize en · VERB

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-né- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂nyéti Proto-Hellenic *pʰáňňō Ancient Greek φαίνω (phaínō) Ancient Greek φαντάζω (phantázō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Hellenic *-tis Ancient Greek -τῐς (-tĭs) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) ? Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τος (-tos) ▲ Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) ? Ancient Greek -τικός (-tikós) Ancient Greek φανταστικός (phantastikós)bor. Late Latin phantasticusbor. Middle French fantastiquebor. English fantastic Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English fantasticize From fantastic + -ize.

Meanings

1. To make fantastic; to use the imagination to embellish.
   • The social and personal behaviour of Muslim men, women and societies as they are encountered in the West could very well be different from the way it is depicted in films or fantasticized in novels, and sometimes even in textbooks. 1983, Mohammad Khalifa, The sublime Qur'ān and orientalism, page xiv:
   • By fantasticizing death we deny it once again. 1979, Parker Rossman, Hospice: Creating New Models of Care for the Terminally Ill, page 5:
   • In performing this fantasticizing operation on language, embroiderers, like calligraphers, must keep in mind that their work is conducted in the liminal region between the sacred and profane. 1999, Voices: The Wisconsin Review of African Literatures:
   • History itself is fantasticized, or it could be said that it is somehow contaminated by its adhesive contact with fantastic. 2015, Ib Johansen, Walking Shadows: Reflections on the American Fantastic and American Grotesque from Washington Irving to the Postmodern Era:
2. Synonym of fantasize.
   • She put her hand to her forehead to see if she'd come down with fever. That night, until she fell asleep, she fantasticized, fantasticized: for how many minutes? 2017, Clarice Lispector, “Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady”, in Complete Stories:
   • The people of the town gave the matter a lot of thought, really "fantasticized" over it for a long time, and finally decided to open the cabaret on the right corner of the Promenade. 1963, Wano Achmeteli, Judge Ayrapetov's laws, page 1:
   • He doesn't have any false pretensions, he's straightforward, no fantasticizing, but full of mood. 1995, Theodor Fontane, William L. Zwiebel, The Stechlin, page 253:
   • And one can substantiate fictions in this sense, just as one can fictionalize or fantasticize facts and things, and for all kinds of different purposes, and at different levels of aetherial abstraction. 2018, Adam Daly, The Reins of the Transfinite, page 330:

Forms

Synonyms

fantasize