Fancy

Love—i.e. the passion of the fantasy or imagination. A fancyman is a man (not your husband) whom you fancy or select for chaperon.

“Tell me where is fancy bred,

Or in the heart or in the head.”

Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, iii. 2.

The fancy. Pugilists. So called because boxing is the chief of sports, and fancy means sports, pets, or fancies. Hence “dog-fanciers,” “pigeon-fanciers,” etc.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.