Origin Story
The fan you are when you love a singer or a team is an entirely different word from the fan that cools you down. This fan is a shortening of fanatic ("a frenzied, devoted person"). Fanatic comes from Latin fanaticus, from fanum ("temple"), meaning "belonging to a temple, possessed by a god" — a word for those who fell into ecstatic frenzy at a shrine. In late 19th-century America, the wildly enthusiastic crowds at baseball games were called fanatics, and the word was soon clipped down to fan. So, by its roots, a fan is a descendant of the worshipper who raved at the temple as if seized by a god.
The same fanum ("temple") also gave us fanatic and profane ("worldly, irreverent"). Profane literally means "before the temple" (pro-fanum) — the ordinary world outside, set against the holiness within.
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Online Etymology Dictionaryfan (n.2): "devotee," 1889, American English, originally of baseball enthusiasts, probably a shortening of fanatic, but may be influenced by the fancy (1807), a collective term for followers of a certain hobby or sport
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Merriam-Webster Dictionaryfan: probably short for fanatic, from Latin fanaticus inspired by a deity, frenzied, from fanum temple
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Oxford English Dictionaryfan: probably an abbreviation of fanatic, from Latin fanaticus "of a temple, inspired by a god"
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
Remember that fan (the devotee) is not the cooling fan but a clipping of fanatic — rooted in fanum, "temple."
""A devoted fan is the heir of the worshipper who raved at the temple as if seized by a god.""
