Musing

My Monday was going along just fine yesterday, until I realized it was only Sunday.  So I decided to walk to the grocery store for four small items I needed.  I came home with four bags full of stuff.  As I walked, I thought (again) of how walking to the store always seems like I'm walking uphill in both directions.  Which I do, actually.  It's uphill part of the way and then downhill to the store, which means I then walk around the store and walk uphill partway home before going downhill the rest of the way.

Reading

As I was reading A Charm of Goldfinches (see HERE), I was surprised by a word on page 88:  "these phantasmic birds."  Oops, I thought, here's a typo.  I thought the author meant "phantastic" birds.  Then I realized that would be spelled "fantastic."  So I decided to look it up.  Well, I found out it actually IS a word.  So.........

Words of the Day

Phantasmic means something is unreal, illusory, or spectral.  For example, you might describe a creature from a nightmare as phantasmal.  Here are some synonyms for phantasmic:  illusive, apparent, chimeric, deceitful, delusive, dreamlike, fake, fallacious, and fanciful.  The word phantasm comes from the Greek verb phantazein, which means "to present to the mind."  Other words that come from the same root include fanciful and fantasy.

Fantasmic:  Notice the last couple of examples are "f" words:  fanciful and fantasy.  So I looked up "fantasmic" and discovered it has multiple definitions, including:

1. Adjective:  An archaic term that means fantastic or fanciful. 
2. Noun:  An obsolete term that means a fantasy or fancy. 
3. An unbelievably fortunate occurrence.  Example:  "I can't believe I didn't hit that car! That was fantasmic!"