fan

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Someone who admires and strongly supports a person, team, or activity.

   She is a huge fan of the local football team.

2. 2
   noun

   A machine or held object that moves air to cool people or things.

   He switched on the fan because the room was hot.

3. 3
   verb

   To move air toward someone or something, especially to cool it.

   She fanned herself with a magazine in the heat.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Fan represents two unrelated words. The air-moving device goes back to Old English fann, a word of Latin origin for an implement used to blow air through harvested grain and separate the chaff. Fan meaning “enthusiast” is a shortening of fanatic, ultimately from Latin fanaticus, “inspired by a god,” from fanum, “temple”; this shortened form is recorded from the late 17th century and became especially established in 19th-century American English.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁s Proto-Italic *faznom Latin fānum Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātus Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icus Latin -āticus Latin fānāticuslbor. ▲ French fanatiqueinflu. English fanatic English fancyinflu. English fan Clipping of fanatic, originally in US baseball slang. Possibly influenced by fancy (“group of sport or hobby enthusiasts”), i.e. fancy boy (“fan”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary