fan

fan¹

—fanlike, adj. —fanner, n.

/fan/, n., v., fanned, fanning.

n.

1. any device for producing a current of air by the movement of a broad surface or a number of such surfaces.

2. an implement of feathers, leaves, paper, cloth, etc., often in the shape of a long triangle or of a semicircle, for waving lightly in the hand to create a cooling current of air about a person: We sat on the veranda, cooling ourselves with palm-leaf fans.

3. anything resembling such an implement, as the tail of a bird.

4. any of various devices consisting essentially of a series of radiating vanes or blades attached to and revolving with a central hublike portion to produce a current of air: ceiling fan; wall fan.

5. a series of revolving blades supplying air for winnowing or cleaning grain.

6. Horol. fly¹ (def. 34).

7. a semicircular decoration of bunting.

8. Physical Geog. an alluvial fan.

9. hit the fan, Slang. to become suddenly more awkward, embarrassing, or troublesome: When news of the incident was leaked to the press, everything hit the fan at once.

v.t.

10. to move or agitate (the air) with or as if with a fan.

11. to cause air to blow upon, as from a fan; cool or refresh with or as if with a fan: He fanned his face with a newspaper.

12. to stir to activity with or as if with a fan: to fan a flame; to fan emotions.

13. (of a breeze, current of air, etc.) to blow upon, as if driven by a fan: A cool breeze fanned the shore.

14. to spread out like a fan: The dealer fanned the cards.

15. Informal. to move (oneself) quickly: You'll fan your tail out of here if you know what's good for you.

16. Agric. to winnow, esp. by an artificial current of air.

17. Baseball. (of a pitcher) to strike out (a batter).

18. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. to punish by spanking; spank: Your mother will fan you good if you break that dish.

v.i.

19. to strike, swing, or brush lightly at something.

20. Western U.S. (chiefly cowboy use). to slap the flanks of (a horse or other animal) repeatedly with a hat to get it to move or move faster.

21. to spread out like a fan (often fol. by out): The forest fire fanned out in all directions.

22. Baseball. (of a batter) to strike out, usually by swinging at and missing the pitch charged as the third strike.

[bef. 900; ME, OE fann < L vannus winnowing basket]

fan²

/fan/, n.

an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, celebrity, etc.: a baseball fan; a great fan of Charlie Chaplin.

[1885-90, Amer.; short for FANATIC]

Syn. supporter, enthusiast, partisan, booster, addict.

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I

Rigid or folding handheld device used for cooling, air circulation, or ceremony or as a sartorial accessory throughout the world from ancient times.

As evidenced by Egyptian reliefs, early fans were of the rigid type, with a handle or stick attached to a rigid leaf or to feathers. In China, the folding fan came into fashion during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644); much significance came to be attached to the fan in East Asia, and many great Chinese painters devoted their talents to fan decoration. Portuguese traders in the 15th century brought fans to Europe from China and Japan. Through the 19th century in the West, fan decoration and size varied with European fashion.

II

(as used in expressions)

Fan Zhongyen

Fan Chung yen

sea fan

submarine fan

Tseng Kuo fan

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▪ clothing accessory

      in the decorative arts, rigid or folding hand-held device used throughout the world since ancient times; it has been used for cooling, air circulation, or ceremony and as a sartorial accessory.

      The rigid fan has a handle or stick with a rigid leaf, or mount. The folding fan is composed of sticks (the outer two called guards) held together at the handle end by a rivet or pin. On the sticks is mounted a leaf that is pleated so that the fan may be opened or closed. A variant of the folding fan is the brisé (French, “broken”) fan, in which the sticks are wider and bladelike and connected at the top by a ribbon or thread, so that they will overlap when the fan is opened to form the equivalent of a leaf.

      Pictorial evidence suggests that the early fans were all of rigid type and, though shapes varied considerably, were derived from the leaf form. Feather fans in which feathers were fixed radially at one end of the handle are illustrated in Pharaonic Egyptian reliefs. Rigid fans also played an important part in Assyrian, Indian, and ancient Chinese ceremonies. The flabellum, a metal disk mounted on a long handle, was used in medieval church ceremony; it was held by the deacon and used pro muscis fugandis, “to drive away flies.”

      Another variant of the rigid fan is the banner fan, which resembles a small flag in that the leaf, often of rectangular shape, is attached to one side of the handle. Known in India and elsewhere, this form was also in favour in Italy during the Renaissance and may well have been introduced to Europe from the Orient.

      The fan has played an important part in Chinese and Japanese life. Fans were carried by men as well as women, and there were many classes of fans, each reserved for some special purpose. Thus, in Japan the fans of courtiers differed from those of the warrior caste, while the fans prescribed for the formal tea ceremony were unlike those used on the stage. With so much significance attached to the fan in the Far East, a great deal of attention was paid to its decoration, and the exquisite taste displayed in the embellishment of high-quality Chinese and Japanese fans has never really been equalled. In Europe the painting of fan leaves was, until the 19th century, the work of artisans—clever decorators at best. In China, on the other hand, many of the great painters devoted their talents to the decoration of fans, and the resulting works of art were not always mounted for actual use.

      The rigid fan was apparently the more common type in China up to the end of the Sung dynasty, but during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) the folding fan seems to have come into fashion. The folding fan was invented in the Far East (by the Japanese in the 7th century AD, it is sometimes claimed), and it is possible that a few examples of such Eastern folding fans reached Europe during the Middle Ages. The Portuguese traders who opened up the sea route to China in the 15th century, however, were probably the first to bring Oriental fans to Europe in any quantity, and thereafter the importation of these curios increased. By the end of the 17th century enormous consignments of Chinese and, to a lesser extent, Japanese fans were reaching Europe. These were mostly of rather poor quality by Oriental standards, for they were made for the less discriminating European market; but the intricacy and skill with which even they were fashioned caught the imagination of Europeans, who bought them eagerly.

      In the West the amount and style of decoration varied with European fashion and ranged from small-scale reproductions of 17th-century wall paintings to simple pleated fans with guards of mother-of-pearl. The fans ranged in size from a radius of about 8 inches during the first three decades of the 19th century to more than 20 inches in the Victorian period. After about 1900 use of the fan began to die out.

▪ ventilating device

      device for producing a current of air or other gases or vapours. Fans are used for circulating air in rooms and buildings; for cooling motors and transmissions; for cooling and drying people, materials, or products; for exhausting dust and noxious fumes; for conveying light materials; for forced draft in steam boilers; and in heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems.

      A fan consists of a series of radial blades attached to a central rotating hub. The rotating assembly of blades and hub is known as an impeller, a rotor, or a runner; and it may or may not be enclosed in a housing. Fans may be driven by an electric motor, an internal-combustion engine, a steam turbine, a gas turbine, or other motive power.

      Enclosed fans may be classified as centrifugal or axial-flow. In centrifugal fans air is led through an inlet pipe to the centre, or eye, of the impeller, which forces it radially outward into the volute, or spiral, casing from which it flows to a discharge pipe.

      In an axial-flow fan, with the runner and guide vanes in a cylindrical housing, air passes through the runner essentially without changing its distance from the axis of rotation. There is no centrifugal effect. Guide, or stator, vanes serve to smooth the airflow and improve efficiency.

      In general, an axial-flow fan is suitable for a relatively large rate of flow with a relatively small pressure gain, and a centrifugal fan for a small rate of flow and a large pressure gain. Actually, the pressure developed in a fan is small compared with the pressure developed in a compressor. The capacities of fans range from 100 to 500,000 cubic feet per minute (3 to 14,000 cubic metres per minute).

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