Dictionary entry

Fata Morgana

Webster's Dictionary 1913

‖Fa″ta Mor‐ga″na (?). [It.; — so called because this phenomenon was looked upon as the work of a fairy (It. fata) of the name of Morgána. See Fairy.] A kind of mirage by which distant objects appear inverted, distorted, displaced, or multiplied. It is noticed particularly at the Straits of Messina, between Calabria and Sicily.