fan the ozone (1890), ozoned (1903)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, 20 May 2005 10:47:13 -0400, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>Interesting.  There are early enough to make it conceivable that
>intransitive "fan" ('strike out (swinging)') may have originated as
>an absolute use of this figure, although perhaps not.  Here's the
>OED--
>
>8. N. Amer. Of a pitcher in baseball: to cause (a batter) to strike out.
>
>1909 in WEBSTER.
>1912 C. MATHEWSON Pitching in a Pinch v. 101 He fanned the next two men.
>
>b. intr. Of a batter: to strike out.
>1886 Outing (U.S.) July 477/2 The man who..'fans out' or 'pops one up'.
>
>--and HDAS has 1888 (but no text given) for trans. "fan", along with
>1901 for "Pitcher Hughes...fanned eleven."
>
>Note that in the latter use, called third strikes would be included
>in the total of players a pitcher fanned; the continuation "...and
>got three more looking" would be impossible, I'd wager.  The "fan
>out" in the 1886 cite is an archaism which now sounds like a blend of
>"strike out" and "fan".

I think that "fan out" was an important stepping stone on the way to "fan"
meaning 'strike (someone) out'.  The earliest relevant usage that I could
find was not "fan the ozone" but (unsurprisingly) "fan the air", which by
1885 came to refer to a batter striking out (in earlier usage it referred
to a batter swinging but not necessarily striking out -- see cites below).

So here is the historical progression, as far as I can tell:

1. batter "fans the air" (or later "the ozone")
2a. batter "fans out" (on analogy with "strikes out")
2b. batter "fans"
3a. pitcher "fans out" batter (on analogy with "strikes out")
3b. pitcher "fans" batter (shortened like 2b)

By the time 3b emerged, the original image of the batter "fanning the air"
with his bat was apparently superceded by the image of the pitcher
"fanning" the batter with the ball.  (This might just be a post-hoc
rationalization of a slightly opaque idiom.)

Early cites for "fan the air (with one's bat)":

1883 _New York Times_  15 Jun. 8/1 Mr. Andrew Deyo next fanned the air
with the bat before the pitcher and whacked the ball a blow that almo[s]t
flattened it.

1884 _Boston Globe_ 13 Jul. 6/1 "Buff" was equal to the emergency, and,
after Denny had fanned the air three times, Carroll finished the game by
flying out to Wise.

1884 _Boston Globe_ 17 Jul.  4/4 His left-handed curves were altogether
too much for the visitors, who fanned the air but rarely hit the ball, and
fourteen retired on strikes.

1884 _Boston Globe_ 28 Aug. 2/4 It was one, two, three for Boston, and
then Farrell opened the second by fanning the air three times.

1885 _New York Times_ 2 Aug. 2/4 Weich distinguished himself by the able
manner in which he made the Chicago "sluggers" fan the air with their
bats.

1885 _Boston Globe_ 12 Aug.  2/4 O'Rourke fanned the air three times in
succession, but Gunning missed the third strike and James was safe on
first.

1885  _New York Times_ 20 Aug.  2/5 The players who the day before hit the
pitching of Lynch for a total of 41 bases could do nothing with the curves
of Crothers. They fanned the air in their attempts to "knock the ball out
of the lot."


--Ben Zimmer