Fantastic
fan·tas·tic
[from dictionary.com]
1.conceived or appearing as if conceived by an unrestrained imagination; odd and remarkable; bizarre; grotesque: fantastic rock formations; fantastic designs.
2.fanciful or capricious, as persons or their ideas or actions: We never know what that fantastic creature will say next.
3.imaginary or groundless in not being based on reality; foolish or irrational: fantastic fears.
4.extravagantly fanciful; marvelous.
5.incredibly great or extreme; exorbitant: to spend fantastic sums of money.
6.highly unrealistic or impractical; outlandish: a fantastic scheme to make a million dollars betting on horse races.
7.Informal. extraordinarily good: a fantastic musical.
My conclusion on this word: Whenever I hear it spoken, it is mostly used in the informal sense of the word. (see #7 above) That’s fine, but fantastic really doesn’t mean the same as the “wow” you say when your friend drives up in his newly acquired [insert favorite car here]. See, fantastic is not really synonymous with cool; it’s more synonymous with bizarre. I’d like to hear it used this way more often.
What brought this up? Read Don Quixote, by Cervantes. That book is utterly fantastic. And I mean that in the original, formal, definition of the word.
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