fan

• IPA^(key): /fæn/
• (æ-tensing) IPA^(key): [feən]
• Rhymes: -æn
• Homophones: faan, fanne

Handheld fans.

An electrical fan.

A ceiling fan.

From Middle English fan, from Old English fann (“a winnowing, fan”), from Latin vannus (“fan for winnowing grain”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”). Cognate with Latin ventus (“wind”), Dutch wan (“fan”), German Wanne, Swedish vanna (“a fan for winnowing”), Old English windwian (“to fan, winnow”). More at winnow.

fan (plural fans)

1. A hand-held device consisting of concertinaed material, or slats of material, gathered together at one end, that may be opened out into the shape of a sector of a circle and waved back and forth in order to move air towards oneself and cool oneself.
2. An electrical or mechanical device for moving air, used for cooling people, machinery, etc.
3. The action of fanning; agitation of the air.
   • 1998, Brock Thoene, ‎Bodie Thoene, A New Frontier: Saga of the Sierras (page 181)

     "If I cannot be of service, then I certainly don't wish to impose," said McGinty, with a quick fan of breeze that indicated a sweeping bow.

4. Anything resembling a hand-held fan in shape, e.g., a peacock’s tail.
5. An instrument for winnowing grain, by moving which the grain is tossed and agitated, and the chaff is separated and blown away.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Isaiah 30:24:

     The oxen likewise and the yong asses that eare the ground, shall eate cleane prouender which hath bene winnowed with the shouell and with the fanne.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Matthew 3:12:

     Whose fanne is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floore, and gather his wheat into the garner: but wil burne vp the chaffe with vnquenchable fire.

6. A small vane or sail, used to keep the large sails of a smock mill always in the direction of the wind.
7. (mathematics) A section of a tree having a finite number of branches

fan (third-person singular simple present fans, present participle fanning, simple past and past participle fanned)

1. (transitive) To blow air on (something) by means of a fan (hand-held, mechanical or electrical) or otherwise.

   We enjoyed standing at the edge of the cliff, being fanned by the wind.

   • 1865, Lewis Carroll, “The Pool of Tears”, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, London: MacMillan and Co., published 1866, page 19:

     Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking.

2. (transitive) To slap (a behind, especially).
   • 1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, Bantam, published 1992, →ISBN, page 148:

     Part of it was that as much as I respected filial devotion and as much as I liked Sarah Barstow, it would have been a real satisfaction to put her across my knees and pull up her skirts and giver^[sic] her a swell fanning, for not taking a look at that driver.

3. (intransitive, usually to fan out) To move or spread in multiple directions from one point, in the shape of a hand-held fan.
4. A maneuver done by flicking the top rear of an old style gun.
   • 2011, Hans-Christoan Vortisch, GURPS Tactical Shooting, page 14:

     To fan a single action revolver, hold down the trigger and strike the hammer repeatedly with a free hand.

5. (metaphoric) To invigorate.
   • 1923, Arthur Symons, Love's Cruelty, page 43:

     She comes, to fan my ardour, She kills me with her kisses.

6. To winnow grain.
   • 1856, Lelièvre, ‎François Réal Angers, Lower Canada reports:

     By the first article, these fanning mills were appointed to be sent to the proprietors of the mills of Sault-à-la puce, Petit-Pré, Beauport, Pointe de Lévy, St. Nicolas and Ste. Famille in the isle of Orleans " to have all the wheat in general of whatever quality sent to these mills passed and fanned, before converting them into flour."

• fanner

• (to firing a revolver by holding trigger and hitting hammer) thumbing

Football/soccer fans in Argentina.

Star Trek fans in the United States.

Rolling Stones fans in Norway.

Clipping of fanatic, originally in US baseball slang. Possibly influenced by fancy (“group of sport or hobby enthusiasts”), fancy boy (“fan”), &c.

fan (plural fans or fen)

1. A person who is fond of something or someone, especially an admirer of a performer or aficionado of a sport.

   I am a big fan of libraries.

The plural fen is only used within science fiction fandom. See fen, etymology 3, for more information.

• See Thesaurus:fan

• hater

• → Dutch: fan
• → Finnish: fani
• → French: fan
• → German: Fan
• → Italian: fan
• → Japanese: ファン
• → Polish: fan
• → Portuguese: fã
• → Romanian: fan
• → Spanish: fan
• → Swedish: fan
• → Thai: แฟน (fɛɛn)

• “fan” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019, retrieved 1 January 2017: “1889, American English, originally of baseball enthusiasts, probably a shortening of fanatic, but it may be influenced by the fancy, a collective term for followers of a certain hobby or sport (especially boxing)”.

• ANF, NAF, NFA

• IPA^(key): [fã˦ã˨]

fan

1. egg

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

• Rhymes: -an

fan

1. third-person plural present indicative form of fer

fan

1. church (building)

   Ka mochen fiti fan? ― Do you want to attend church?

2. time (instance or occurrence)
   • 2010, Ewe Kapasen God, United Bible Societies, →ISBN, Matthew 26:34, page 55:

     Jesus a apasa ngeni Peter, "Upwe apasa ngonuk pwe non ei chok pwinin me mwen ewe chukȯ epwe kökkö, fan unungat kopwe apasa pwe kose sinei ei."

     Jesus said to Peter, "I tell you that in this night before the chicken calls, three times you will say that you don't know me."

fan

1. under

• (Belgium) IPA^(key): /fɑn/
• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /fɛn/

• Audio

  (file)

Borrowed from English fan.

fan m (plural fans, diminutive fannetje n)

1. fan (admirer)

• aanhanger
• bewonderaar
• supporter

fan

1. fan, admirer, aficionado

• fani

Borrowed from English fan, 1920s.

• IPA^(key): /fan/

fan m or f (plural fans)

1. fan (admirer, supporter)

Borrowed from English fan.

• IPA^(key): /fan/

fan f (plural fans)

1. (Canada) fan (ventilator)

• “fan” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Latin famēs.

fan f

1. hunger

• famâ

fan

1. third-person plural present indicative of facer

fan

1. Romanization of 𐍆𐌰𐌽

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɒn]
• Hyphenation: fan

fan (plural fanok)

1. (obsolete) pubis

Today it is used only in compounds.

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• fanszőrzet

• fan at A Pallas Nagy Lexikona, Pallas Irodalmi és Nyomdai Rt., Budapest, 1897
• László Országh, Hungarian-English Dictionary, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1977

From Old Irish anaid, fanaid (“stays, remains, abides”).

• IPA^(key): /fˠanˠ/

fan (present analytic fanann, future analytic fanfaidh, verbal noun fanacht, past participle fanta)

1. to wait
2. to stay

From Latin fāmes.

fan

1. hunger

Borrowed from English fan.

fan m or f (plural fans)

1. fan (admirer or follower)

fàn+

1. hear
2. understand
3. feel

fan

1. Nonstandard spelling of fān.
2. Nonstandard spelling of fán.
3. Nonstandard spelling of fǎn.
4. Nonstandard spelling of fàn.

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

From Old English fann, from Latin vannus. Forms in v- are due to a combination of Southern Middle English voicing of initial fricatives and influence from the ultimate Latin etymon.

• fanne, ffanne, vanne

• IPA^(key): /fan/, /van/

fan (plural fannes)

1. A mechanism or device for removing chaff from grain (i.e. winnowing).
2. A training or practice shield manufactured out of twigs or wickerwork.
3. (rare) A fan; a device for blowing air as to cool.

• English: fan, van
• Scots: fan

• “fan(ne (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-31.

From Old English fannian.

fan

1. Alternative form of fannen

fan

1. third-person plural present indicative of faire

From Proto-Germanic *fanē.

fan

1. off, from

• Middle Dutch: van
  • Dutch: van
  • Limburgish: ven

• “fan”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

From Proto-Germanic *fanhaną.

fān

1. to catch

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

• anafān
• antfān
• bifān

• Middle Dutch: vâen
  • Dutch: vangen
    • Afrikaans: vang
  • Limburgish: vange

• “fān”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

• fana
• fon

From Proto-Germanic *afana, whence also Old High German fon.

• IPA^(key): /fan/

fan

1. from

Borrowed from English fan.

• IPA^(key): /fan/

• Audio

  (file)

fan m pers (feminine fanka)

1. fan (“admirer”)

• (admirer): entuzjasta, wielbiciel, miłośnik, zapaleniec

• fanklub
• fandom
• fanzin
• fanowski

• fan in Polish dictionaries at PWN

fan

1. betel leaf

From Old Irish anaid, fanaid (“stays, remains, abides”).

fan (past dh'fhan, future fanaidh, verbal noun fantail or fantainn or fanachd)

1. stay, remain
2. wait

• feith
• fuirich

Borrowed from English fan.

fan m or f (plural fans)

1. fan

• aficionado
• admirador
• entusiasta
• fanático
• hincha

From Late Old Norse fendinn, perhaps from Old Frisian fandiand, present participle of fandia (“tempt”), from Proto-Germanic *fandōną (“seek, search for, examine”). Cognate with Danish fanden and Norwegian Bokmål faen.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaːn/, /ˈfaːˌa(ː)n/

fan c

1. the devil, Satan

   Må fan ta dig.

   May the devil take you.

   Du var mig en jobbig fan.

   You're one tricky little devil.

fan

1. damn (referring to the devil)

   Fan! Jag glömde nycklarna.

   Damn! I forgot my keys.

• måla fan på väggen

Borrowed from English fan, short for fanatic, related to the Swedish words fanatisk and fanatiker.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛːn/
• Homophone: fän

fan c or n

1. fan (admirer)

   jag är ett stort fan av saffransbullar

   I'm a huge fan of saffron buns

Borrowed from Low German fan, used since 1772, closely related to Swedish fana (“flag”).

fan n

1. vane, web (part of the anatomy of a bird's feather)

fan

1. bait

Borrowed from Arabic فَنّ‎ (fann).

fan (plural fanlar)

1. science

• ilm

Borrowed from English van.

fan f (plural faniau)

1. van

fan

1. Soft mutation of man.

• Angharad Fychan and Ann Parry Owen, editors (2014), “fan”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

From Old Frisian fen, from Proto-Germanic *fanē.

• IPA^(key): /fɔn/

fan

1. from
2. of

• “fan (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011