fancy

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Someone who purchases any print which catches his or her fancy is an acquirer.

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Definitions (59)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (17)

  1. noun The mental faculty through which whims, visions, and fantasies are summoned up; imagination, especially of a whimsical or fantastic nature. See Synonyms at imagination.
  2. noun An image or a fantastic invention created by the mind.
  3. noun A capricious notion; a whim.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (32)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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Examples (50)

  • But as in everything else, so in this, his fancy was a fitful one. —  The Memoir of John Lothrop Motley
  • The coachman directed the hack to what he referred to as the fancy-pants section of town, yet he still had to ask directions from a passerby before he found the address his fare had requested. —  Garwood, Julie - The Gift
  • Someone who purchases any print which catches his or her fancy is an acquirer. —  ArchivesBlogs
  • Of all of Apple's music players, the one that tickles my fancy is the iPod Touch. —  British Blogs
  • Also, if your fancy is a fairly recent discontinued model (for example, a black MacBook), they crop up frequently on the ACR site. —  GigaOM Network
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

nice ·  new ·  expensive ·  imagination ·  red

Used in the same contextWord Family

fancy:   fancier ·  fanciest ·  fancied ·  fancying ·  fancies
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Middle English fantsy, imagination, fantasy, from fantasie; see fantasy.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also fancie, fansy, fant'sy, phant'sy, a contr. of earlier fantasy, from Middle English fantasy, fantesy, fantasie, fancy, imagination, notion, illusion, inclination, = Dutch fantazie = German fantasie = Danish Swedish fantasi, from Old French fantasie, fantaisie, French fantaisie = Provencal fantazia = Spanish fantasía = Portuguese Italian fantasia, fancy, etc., from Middle Latin fantasia, Late Latin phantasia, an idea, notion, fancy, phantasm, from Greek θαντασία, the look or appearance of a thing, imagination, an impression received, image, from φαντάζειν, make visible, present to the eye or mind, from φαίνειν, bring to light, show, √ *φαν, connected with √ *φα, in φάειν, shine, φάος, contr. φῶς (φωτ-), light, etc. See phantasm = fantom (phantom), fantastic, phenomenon, photo-, etc.
  2. from fancy, n.
 

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/ˈfænsi/
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