fantastic means wonderful; marvelous; excellent; extraordinarily good or great (used especially as an intensifier).
fantastic is pronounced /fænˈtæs.tɪk/.
Why “fantastic” is a great word
Marked by a departure from reality into the realm of the fanciful, the imaginative, or the extraordinarily good. From Middle French fantastique, from Late Latin phantasticus, from Ancient Greek φανταστικός (phantastikós, "imaginary, fantastic"), from φαντάζειν (phantázein, "to make visible, to show"), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰeh₂- ("to shine"). Unlike "realistic," which clings to the shore of the probable, or "preposterous," which mocks the shores it leaves, "fantastic" describes the voyage itself, without inherent scorn. It is the impossible architecture of a dream city, the sudden appearance of a phosphorescent garden at midnight, or the precise moment when a mundane Tuesday reveals itself to be threaded with unaccountable joy—the original sense of making visible what otherwise hides in the mind's radiant, ungoverned spaces.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French fantastique, borrowed from Late Latin phantasticus, borrowed from Ancient Greek φᾰντᾰστῐκός (phăntăstĭkós, “imaginary, fantastic; fictional”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”). Equivalent to fantasy + -tic. Doublet of fantastique.
adj
- Wonderful; marvelous; excellent; extraordinarily good or great (used especially as an intensifier).e.g.“"I had a simply fantastic vacation, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!"”
- Existing in or constructed from fantasy; of or relating to fantasy; fanciful.e.g.“He told fantastic stories of dragons and goblins.”
- Given to fanciful ideas, impulsive; irrational.e.g.“She was a frightened fool, and she was fantastic, and I suppose that, at that time, she really cared for that imbecile.” — 1915, Ford Madox Hueffer [i.e., Ford Madox Ford], The Good Soldier […], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, →OCLC:
- Not believable; implausible; seemingly only possible in fantasy.
- Resembling fantasies in irregularity, caprice, or eccentricity; irregular; grotesque.e.g.“There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, / That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high.” — 1750 June 12 (date written; published 1751), T[homas] Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, in Designs by Mr. R[ichard] Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […
noun
- A fanciful or whimsical person.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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