fantasm
phantasm
or fan·tasm
- an apparition or specter.
- a creation of the imagination or fancy; fantasy.
- a mental image or representation of a real object.
- an illusory likeness of something.
Origin of phantasm
Synonyms for phantasm
Synonym study
Examples from the Web for fantasm
Historical Examples of fantasm
Later still, they found a little water poured in a basin or held in the hollow of the hand showed as true a fantasm.
The Thing from the LakeEleanor M. Ingram
Then I was right in calling you a dreamer, for love itself is a fantasm inspired by hope or memory.
With Edge ToolsHobart Chatfield-Taylor
fantasm
- an archaic spelling of phantasm
phantasm
- a phantom
- an illusory perception of an object, person, etc
- (in the philosophy of Plato) objective reality as distorted by perception
Word Origin for phantasm
Word Origin and History for fantasm
phantasm
early 13c., fantesme, from Old French fantosme "a dream, illusion, fantasy; apparition, ghost, phantom" (12c.), and directly from Latin phantasma "an apparition, specter," from Greek phantasma "image, phantom, apparition; mere image, unreality," from phantazein "to make visible, display," from stem of phainein "to bring to light, make appear; come to light, be seen, appear; explain, expound, inform against; appear to be so," from PIE root *bha- (1) "to shine" (cf. Sanskrit bhati "shines, glitters," Old Irish ban "white, light, ray of light"). Spelling conformed to Latin from 16c. (see ph). A spelling variant of phantom, "differentiated, but so that the differences are elusive" [Fowler].
phantasm
(făn′tăz′əm)- Something apparently seen but having no physical reality; an apparition.
- An illusory mental image.