Fan

Multiple Entries:
  Fan    fan    Fang  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Fan /fan/

▶noun & adjective variant spelling of Fang.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fan1

▶noun

• 1 an apparatus with rotating blades that creates a current of air for cooling or ventilation.

• 2 a hand-held device, typically folding and shaped like a segment of a circle when spread out, that is waved so as to cool the user.

• 3 a fan-shaped alluvial or talus deposit at the foot of a slope.

▶verb (fans, fanning, fanned)

• 1 cool by waving something to create a current of air.

  ■ drive away with a waving movement.

  ■ Baseball & Ice Hockey swing unsuccessfully at the ball or puck.

  ■ Baseball strike out (a batter).

• 2 (of an air current) increase the strength of (a fire).

  ■ make (a belief or emotion) stronger.

• 3 (fan out) spread out over a wide area.

– derivatives
fan-like adjective,
fanner noun.

– origin OE fann (as a noun denoting a device for winnowing grain), fannian (v.), from L. vannus ‘winnowing fan’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fan2

▶noun a person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular activity, performer, etc.

– derivatives
fandom noun.

– origin C19 (orig. US): abbrev. of fanatic.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Fang /faŋ/ (also Fan)

▶noun (pl. same or Fangs)

• 1 a member of a people inhabiting parts of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.

• 2 the Bantu language of the Fang.

– origin Fr., prob. from Fang Pangwe.