fancyfancy

Fancy comes from Middle English fansy, a contraction of fantasie, from Old French fantasie, ultimately from Greek φαντασία ‘appearance’ and PIE *bʰeh₂- ‘to shine’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰeh₂-¹‘to shine’reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰh₂-n-yé-ti¹reconstructedthematic yé-present of *bʰeh₂-
3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*pʰáňňō¹‘to appear’reconstructed
4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEφαίνω²phaínō‘to make visible’
5. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEφαντός²phantós‘visible’
6. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEφαντάζω²phantázō‘to render visible’
7. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEφαντασία²phantasía‘appearance, display’
8. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEphantasia²‘an idea, notion, fancy’
9. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500fantasia²
10. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fantasie²‘fantasy’
11. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fantasie²
12. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fansy²
13. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596fancy²

1. ¹ Wiktionary, Ancient Greek φαίνω
2. ² Wiktionary, English fancy
3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame: “For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself /…”.