phantasmal

English

WOTD – 17 April 2024

Etymology

From phantasm or phantasma (“phantasm”) +‎ -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fænˈtæzml̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /fænˈtæzməl/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: phan‧tasm‧al

Adjective

phantasmal (comparative more phantasmal, superlative most phantasmal)

1. Of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantasm (“something seen but having no physical reality”); imaginary, unreal.

   Synonyms: phantasmatic, phantasmatical, phantasmic, phantasmical, phantomatic

   • 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto VII”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 98:

     The matter of which dreams are made / Not more endowed with actual life / Than this phantasmal portraiture / Of wandering human thought.

   • 1910 October 1, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Queer Feet”, in The Innocence of Father Brown, London, New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, published 1911, →OCLC, page 80:

     Mr. Audley, the chairman, was an amiable, elderly man who still wore Gladstone collars; he was a kind of symbol of all that phantasmal and yet fixed society.

   • 1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter II, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 93:

     [H]e had heard about him the constant voices of his father and of his masters, urging him to be a gentleman above all things and urging him to be a good catholic above all things. […] And it was the din of all these hollowsounding voices that made him halt irresolutely in the pursuit of phantoms. He gave them ear only for a time but he was happy only when he was far from them, beyond their call, alone or in the company of phantasmal comrades.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 10:

     Her secrets: old feather fans, tassled dancecards, powdered with musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer. […] Phantasmal mirth, folded away: muskperfumed.

   1. Of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom (“apparition or ghost”); ghostly, spectral.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ghostly

   2. (parapsychology) Of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantasm (“perception or vision of a living or dead person who is not physically present, often through telepathy”).

Alternative forms

• fantasmal

Derived terms

• phantasmalian (obsolete, rare)
• phantasmality
• phantasmally

Related terms

• fantasmatic, phantasmatic
• phantasm
• phantasma
• phantasmagoria
• phantasmatical
• phantasmic
• phantasmical
• phantasmically
• phantastical (dated)
• phantastically (dated)
• phantastic (dated)
• phantasy
• phantom
• phantomatic

 

Translations

of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantasm — see imaginary,‎ unreal

of or pertaining to, or having the characteristics of, a phantom — see also ghostly,‎ spectral

• Esperanto: fantoma
• Finnish: aavemainen (fi)
• French: fantasmatique (fr)
• Italian: fantasmatico
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: fantasmatic
• Russian: при́зрачный (ru) (prízračnyj)
• Spanish: fantasmal

Further reading

• phantasm (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia