noun
(also phantast)
archaic North American An impractical, impulsive person; a dreamer.
‘the accusation was passed to the national press from the mouths of liars and fantasts’- ‘Less entrepreneurs than informed fans, and less fans than fantasts, Subway will occasionally not bother to hook a program note to a program.’
- ‘While not exactly bland or nondescript, these scores seem to indicate that few rebels, experimenters, or fantasts are writing music in Scandinavia today.’
- ‘One should not reproach the theorist who undertakes such a task by calling him a fantast; instead, one must allow him his fantasizing, since for him there is no other way to his goal whatsoever.’
utopian, visionary, wishful thinker, pipe-dreamer, fantasist, fantasizer, romantic, romanticist, romancer, castle-builder, Walter Mitty, Don Quixote, dreamer, daydreamer, impractical person, unrealistic person
Origin
Late 16th century (formerly also as phantast): originally via medieval Latin from Greek phantastēs ‘boaster’, from phantazein or phantazesthai (see fantastic); in modern use from German Phantast.
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