I’ve seen English subtitles of Spanish media making this mistake too. Ventilador is fan in Spanish but they always translate it to ventilator in English (where it should be fan). It’s always a good laugh. Also the mil/millón mixup is funny too.
I was wondering if "fanatic" ironically could have come from the French language. Looking at the etymology I'm now wondering if "fanum tax" stems from Latin.
"devotee," 1889, American English, originally of baseball enthusiasts, probably a shortening of fanatic, but it may be influenced by the fancy, a collective term for followers of a certain hobby or sport (especially boxing); see fancy (n.). There is an isolated use from 1682, but the modern word likely is a late 19c. formation. Fan mail attested from 1920, in a Hollywood context; Fan club attested by 1930.
Looking up etymologies always teaches something new. Now I can't stop thinking of "fans" as "fanciers" basically.
Yeah, I saw that synopsis under the knowyourmeme result lol. There's always that one friend/relative. Kind of funny there's never really been a phrase for it before.
Still, I like the thought of it meaning everyone has that one food they really like and will steal a bite if anyone gets it.
I don't speak French but my understanding of it is that french has a word for fan (of someone) and fan (that moves air) and translate used the wrong one.
I all fairness, the short sentence "Person X with a fan in France" could just as easily be meant either way.
Probabilistically I wouldn't be surprise that the fan that blows is more likely that the fan who is a person simply because everybody but a handful of people in the World do not really have legions of human fans they take pictures with, but once in a while some of them might in fact be mentioned along with the mention of a fan of the blowing kind.
It's only the picture and us recognizing Lana Del Rey as a celebrity that lets us know it's one kind of fan rather than the other kind.