General English


  • noun a circular device with rotating blades, powered by an engine or motor, for moving a gas such as air

Cars & Driving

  • noun a device with a number of blades mounted in a central hub, which can move air as it turns


  • A mechanical device, usually equipped with rotating blades, which is utilized to produce a current of air. Used, for instance, to cool components, or to help purify air.
  • The volume of space energized by the beam of electromagnetic energy produced by a radar transmitter.


Media Studies

  • noun a person who is passionately interested in and attached to a performer

Real Estate

  • noun a device that circulates currents of air to keep a room cool, especially one with rotating blades


  • noun the backside, buttocks. A shortening of fanny 2.

Origin & History of “fan”

English has two words fan. By far the older (OE) came from Latin vannus; it originally meant ‘device for winnowing grain’, and its now familiar sense ‘handheld device for creating a cooling draught’ did not develop until the 16th century. Its characteristic semicircular shape gave rise to the term fanlight (19th c.) (since applied to a rectangular window above a door). Fan ‘supporter’ is short for fanatic. there is a one-off example of its use in the 17th century, in New news from Bedlam 1682, but the origins of the modern word were in late 19th-century America, where it was used for sports supporters.