Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name given to the mirage on the coasts of Italy and Sicily. See mirage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • A kind of mirage by which distant objects appear inverted, distorted, displaced, or multiplied. It is noticed particularly at the Straits of Messina, between Calabria and Sicily.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A form of mirage caused by a temperature inversion in the atmosphere.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a mirage in the Strait of Messina (attributed to the Arthurian sorcerer Morgan le Fay)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian for Morgan le Fay

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Examples

  • Many remarkable phenomena attend this state of the atmosphere, known as the Fata Morgana of Sicily, the Mirage of the Desert, the Spectre of the Brocken, and the more common exhibitions of halos, coronæ, and mock suns.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 33, July, 1860 Various

  • This picture has the merit, along with "Fata Morgana," of combining the teaching element with one of the finest representations of woman's form that came from Watts 'brush.

    Watts (1817-1904) William Loftus Hare

  • I thought I saw a kind of Fata Morgana, green meadows, waving groves, a rustic home; but in the far distance -- I stared -- I stared -- a

    Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest George Henry Borrow 1842

  • "The Fata Morgana is a sort of mirage seen in the Strait of Messina.

    Asiatic Breezes Students on The Wing Oliver Optic 1859

  • From Fata Morgana, his essay on "demented colonialism" and the Sahara desert, to the calcified womb of the Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Herzog has made it his mission to respiritualise landscape, to allow fear, awe and wonder to reinhabit our perception of the natural world.

    Werner Herzog, the adventurous spirit 2011

  • Rob, yes, the Fata Morgana name is perfect for this effect.

    Superior Mirage James Gurney 2010

  • My annotated version of the tale also tells me that Fata Morgana is also known by the named of Morgan le Fay, an enchantress with the ability to change her appearance.

    Superior Mirage James Gurney 2010

  • Fata Morgana sounded as though it would appeal – it has no plot, and consists solely of footage shot in Africa while a voice reads out creation myths, strange observations, song lyrics, etc.

    Reading & Watching – Aug 2009 « It Doesn't Have To Be Right… 2009

  • Fata Morgana (1971), Heart Of Glass (1976), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), and Stroszek (1977), dir.

    Reading & Watching – Aug 2009 « It Doesn't Have To Be Right… 2009

  • Not a stream did he mention but flowed over sands of gold, and not a palace that was inferior to those of the celebrated Fata Morgana.

    The Surgeon's Daughter 2008

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