Etymology: Middle English fantasie — more at fancy
Date: 14th century
1obsolete:hallucination 2:fancy; especially: the free play of creative imagination 3: a creation of the imaginative faculty whether expressed or merely conceived: as a: a fanciful design or invention b: a chimerical or fantastic notion c:fantasia 1 d: imaginative fiction featuring especially strange settings and grotesque characters —called also fantasy fiction 4:caprice 5: the power or process of creating especially unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological need <an object of fantasy>; also: a mental image or a series of mental images (as a daydream) so created <sexual fantasies of adolescence> 6: a coin usually not intended for circulation as currency and often issued by a dubious authority (as a government-in-exile)