[It. fata a fairy; Morgana, sister of the British legendary hero Arthur, app. located in Calabria by the Norman settlers.] A kind of mirage most frequently seen in the Strait of Messina, attributed in early times to fairy agency. Also fig.
1818. R. Jamieson, in Burt’s Lett. N. Scotl., II. xxiii. 111. In mountainous regions, deceptions of sight, fata morgana, &c. are more common.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, I. viii. 78. He [Coleridge] preferred to create logical fatamorganas for himself on this hither side, and laboriously solace himself with these.
1892. Daily News, 17 May, 5/4. A fata Morgana seen last autumn near … Karlova.
attrib. 1829. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 61. With only cloud mountains, and fatamorgana cities; the true character of that region being Vacuity, or at best a stony desert tenanted by Gryphons and Chimeras.
