phantasmagorical en · ADJ
Etymology
From phantasmagoria + -ical.
Meanings
-
Synonym of phantasmagoric.
Accordingly, Hawthorne selects the Brook Farm episode (or a reflection of it) as affording his drama "a theatre, a little removed from the highway of ordinary travel, where the creatures of his brain may play their phantasmagorical antics, without exposing them to too close a comparison with the actual events of real lives."
1886, Julian Hawthorne, Confessions and Criticisms, ch. 3 "Americanism in Fiction""In my youth," he went on after a pause, "I found myself, quite fortuitously, involved in a series of the most phantasmagorical amorous intrigues.[…]"
1921, Aldous Huxley, chapter XXV, in Crome Yellow, London: Chatto & Windus, page 305:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more phantasmagorical | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most phantasmagorical | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |