Etymologically
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Fan

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Pronunciation

Forms

Fan m (genitive Fans, plural Fans)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English fan (“enthusiastic supporter”), borrowed in the middle of the 20th century.[2][3][4] The English word, which came to German from American usage, is a shortening of fanatic (“fanatic, zealot”).[3][5][1] That adjective goes back to Latin fānāticus (“inspired, frenzied”), which belongs to fānum (“temple, sanctuary”).[2][3]

The same loan is found in Dutch, French, Swedish and Norwegian (Dutch fan, French fan, Swedish fan).[2] In German it is related to fanatisch and, more distantly, to profan.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch's first record is from 1949, in the compound Jazz-Fans “jazz fans”; the revised Grimm dictionary also notes that the word first appears as the second part of Jazzfan.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

English already had sporadic spellings phan and fann in the late 17th century.[3] In German the word was at first used above all of devotees of jazz, sport and film, and of young enthusiasts.[5][3] It soon became very productive as the second part of compounds such as Fußballfan, Jazzfan, Autofan and Opernfan.[5] A feminine Fanin has occasionally been formed, but Fan is normally used of women as well.[5][7]

In technical language Fan also names the front part of a jet engine, the fan.[8]

Timeline

  • Late 17th century – English has sporadic forms phan, fann.[3]
  • 1949 – First German record, in Jazz-Fans.[5]
  • 1951 – Female Fans are mentioned, still in quotation marks.[5]
  • Mid-20th century – The word is established in German.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An enthusiastic supporter or admirer of someone or something, such as a singer, a team or a kind of music: Die Fans warteten stundenlang vor dem Hotel.[7][1]
  2. (technology) The fan of a jet engine, its front stage.[8]

Word family

  • Fußballfan
  • Jazzfan
  • Filmfan
  • fanatisch
  • profan
  • English fan

Usage notes

The rare female first name Fan is a separate word: a short or pet form of Fanny.[8] The noun is pronounced as in English, [fɛn].[7][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 276
  3. ^ a b c d e f Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 255
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
  6. ^ Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 9, 126
  7. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  8. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org