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fata morgana

 
Dictionary: fa·ta mor·ga·na   ('tə môr-gä') pronunciation

n.
See mirage (sense 1).

[Italian, mirage, Morgan le Fay (from the belief that the mirage was caused by her witchcraft) : fata, fairy (from Vulgar Latin fāta, goddess of fate; see fairy) + Morgana, Morgan (probably from Old Irish Morrigain).]


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(fata mor-GAH-nuh)

noun
An optical phenomenon that creates the illusion of water, often with inverted reflections of distant objects, and results from distortion of light by alternate layers of hot and cool air. Also called mirage.

Etymology
Italian, mirage, Morgan le Fay (from the belief that the mirage was caused by her witchcraft) : fata, fairy (from Vulgar Latin fata, goddess of fate) + Morgana, Morgan, probably from Old Irish Morrigain.

Usage
"It is too early in Go-Go to have predictable, controllable results, and a bonus based exclusively on a formula of controllable and achievable results is a fata morgana." — Ichak Adizes, Surviving the Go-Go Years, The Pursuit of Prime, Jan 1996.


A mirage often seen in the Strait of Messina, Sicily, once attributed to the fairies. It took its name from the Italian form of Morgan le Fay, sister of King Arthur in Arthurian legend.

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Copyright © 2001 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fata Morgana" Read more