catch someone's fancy

Example: “None of the paintings in the gallery really caught my fancy.”

Origin: Built from two pieces with a straightforward combined logic: "fancy" itself is a worn-down form of "fantasy," narrowed over time to mean a passing whim, preference, or spark of imaginative interest, while "catch" carries its familiar sense of seizing or capturing something in motion. Put together, the phrase treats attention or interest as something that can be caught the way a hand catches a thrown object — quick, involuntary, and a little bit outside the catcher's control.