Fancied

How to spell fancied

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fancied

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fancied mean?

1. verbImagined or supposed something to be the case, often mistakenly.
2. verbFelt a wish or appetite for something; would have liked to have it.
3. verbFelt romantically or physically attracted to someone.

Fancied in a sentence

• In the empty house she fancied she heard footsteps on the stairs.

• After the long walk she fancied a hot cup of tea.

• She had quietly fancied her neighbour for years before saying anything.

• He fancied that the noise outside was just the wind.

• Nobody fancied cooking, so they ordered a takeaway instead.

• Everyone at the office knew he fancied the new manager.

Where does fancied come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is the past tense of the verb 'fancy', which is itself a worn-down form of 'fantasy'. The deeper root is the Greek 'phantasia', meaning a making visible or an appearance presented to the mind, from 'phainein', to show or bring to light. Latin took it as 'phantasia' and Old French shortened and reshaped it, so that by the fifteenth century English speakers were clipping 'fantasy' down to 'fancy' for the lighter notions of imagination, liking, and whim. From the sense of forming a mental picture grew the everyday British meanings 'to want' and 'to be attracted to', while the older sense 'to imagine or suppose' survives in more literary use. The spelling 'fancied' keeps the soft 'c' of 'fancy' and follows the regular rule of turning a final 'y' into 'ied'.

How the word is built

• fanc- (from fancy, a contraction of fantasy)
• -ied (past-tense/participle ending, where final -y becomes -ied)