Antedating of "Fan"

[Fred Shapiro]

OED and HDAS have 1889 as their earliest citation for the modern word
_fan_ 'fanatic.' I believe that Barry Popik and David Shulman have pushed
this back to 1887 in articles in American Speech and Comments on
Etymology.  Here is earlier from Paperofrecord.com:

1886 _Sporting News_ 31 May 5 (Paperofrecord.com)  The Boston fans explain
the poor playing of their nine so far by saying that Radbourne does not
get effective until June, while Buffinton has had a lame shoulder, Sam
Wise has been sick and Burdock has been slow about getting down to work.

Fred Shapiro


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