fantasyfantasy

Fantasy comes from Old French fantasie, from Latin phantasia, from Ancient Greek φαντασία ‘apparition’, from φαντάζω ‘to make visible’, ultimately from φαίνω ‘to show’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰeh₂-¹‘to shine’reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰh₂nyéti¹reconstructed
3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*pʰáňňō¹‘to appear’reconstructed
4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEφαίνω¹phaínō‘to make visible’
5. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEφαντός²‘visible’
6. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEφαντάζω¹phantázō‘to render visible’
7. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEφᾰ́ντᾰσῐς¹phắntăsĭs
8. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEφαντασία¹phantasía‘apparition’
9. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEphantasia¹‘imagination’
10. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fantasie¹
11. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fantasie¹‘the faculty of imagination’
12. Englishearliest quotation 1551fantasy¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English fantasy
2. ² Wiktionary, Ancient Greek φαντάζω
3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1551, Thomas More, (please specify the Internet Archive page): “Which he doth most fantasy.”.