Trip the light fantastic means dance fantastically. How can someone tripping over a light be a fantastic dancer? The original meaning for “trip” was “tread or step lightly and nimbly, skip, dance, caper.” The “light fantastic” part comes from the great John Milton who used the phrase adjectively in poems and masques in the 17th century to describe “toes” and “rounds”. Obviously, he did not mean “light” as a device that illuminates but to describe something without much weight and can move effortlessly.
Trip the light fantastic William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 4-3-20
