Etymograph

English

fan

Fan (device) comes from Middle English fan, from Old English fann ‘winnowing fan’, from Latin vannus, from PIE *h₂weh₁- ‘to blow’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂weh₁-‘to blow’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvannus‘fan for winnowing grain’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150fann‘a winnowing fan’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fan
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1611fan

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂weh₁-‘to blow’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvannus‘fan for winnowing grain’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150fann‘a winnowing fan’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fan
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1611fan

Earliest quotation: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “The oxen likewise and the yong asses that eare…”

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁-

Another origin of fan

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-‘to do’root as named
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfānāticu
  3. English1500–presentfanatic
  4. Englishtodayfan

Possibly influenced by fancy (‘group of sport or hobby enthusiasts’), i.e. fancy boy (‘fan’).

Another origin of fan

  1. Cantonesemodern分
  2. Englishtodayfan

Today it means

noun 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.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- / fan

Shirt and support for this word