You can think of the root picture as 'something straight out of the imagination' — strange, magical, unlike anything real. From that root, the word slides outward: things that are unreal, then amounts so huge they seem unreal, and finally anything so good it feels almost unreal.
From the word’s history
From Greek phantastikos 'of the imagination', from phantasia 'imagination' (same root as fantasy, phantom). The original sense is 'belonging to imagination, not to the real world' — which is why the most basic picture here is the magical/imaginary one, and the everyday 'wonderful' is a later, faded extension.
源自希臘文 phantastikos「屬於想像的」，再往上是 phantasia「想像」（和 fantasy、phantom 同源）。本義是「屬於想像、不屬於現實」——所以這裡最根本的畫面比較像「奇幻、想像出來的」那個，而日常的「超棒」其實是後來淡化出去的延伸。
etymonline.com/word/fantastic
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
fantasticadj/fænˈtæs.tɪk/
- 1
Wonderful; marvelous; excellent; extraordinarily good or great (used especially as an intensifier).
- "I had a simply fantastic vacation, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!"
- 2
Existing in or constructed from fantasy; of or relating to fantasy; fanciful.
- He told fantastic stories of dragons and goblins.
- His fantastic post-college plans had all collapsed within a year of graduation.
- 3
archaicGiven to fanciful ideas, impulsive; irrational.
- She was a frightened fool, and she was fantastic, and I suppose that, at that time, she really cared for that imbecile.
- 4
archaicNot believable; implausible; seemingly only possible in fantasy.
- And indeed, when in the writings of Paracelſus I meet with ſuch Phantaſtick and Un-intelligible Diſcourſes as that Writer often puzzels and tyres his Reader with, father'd upon ſuch excellent Experiments, as though he ſeldom clearly teaches, I often find he knew ; me thinks the Chymiſts, in their ſearches after truth, are not unlike the Navigators of Solomons Tarſhiſh Fleet, who brought home from their long and tedious Voyages, not only Gold, and Silver, and Ivory, but Apes and Peacocks too ; For ſo the Writings of ſeveral (for I ſay not, all) of your Hermetick Philoſophers preſent us, together with divers Subſtantial and noble Experiments, Theories, which either like Peacocks feathers make a great ſhew, but are neither ſolid nor uſeful ; or elſe like Apes, if they have ſome appearance of being rational, are blemiſh'd with ſome abſurdity or other, that when they are Attentively conſider'd, makes them appear Ridiculous.
- Since 1 part in 100,000 would imply that one could put a Shuttle up each day for 300 years expecting to lose only one, we could properly ask "What is the cause of management's fantastic faith in the machinery?"
- 5
archaicResembling fantasies in irregularity, caprice, or eccentricity; irregular; grotesque.
- There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, / That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high.
- […]This round of green, this orb of flame, Fantastic beauty; such as lurks In some wild Poet, when he works Without a conscience or an aim.
fantasticnoun/fænˈtæs.tɪk/
- 1
archaicA fanciful or whimsical person.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。