phantasim

Noun

phantasm (plural phantasms)

1. Something seen but having no physical reality; a phantom or apparition.
   • But night comes in with a more genial spirit: we have done our worst and our bitterest; and we need a small space to indulge any little bit of cordiality that may be left in us. A thousand gay phantasms float in on the sunny south, which has left the far-off vineyards of its birth.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Success”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 75
2. An impression as received by the senses, especially an image, often prior to any interpretation by the intellect.
   • When abstracted from the phantasm by the intellectus agens the species effects a modification in the intellectus possibilis which modification is called the species intelligibilis impressa. Actualized by the species impressa the intellectus […]1932, Sr. Mary Anastasia Coady, The Phantasm According to the Teaching of St. Thomas

   Synonyms:

   phantasia