Sports fans vs. cooling fans. (The hand fan is older still.)
Which meaning of Fan is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Fan (admirer) came first (the 1880s). Computer fan arrived in the 1980s. The data below shows which one owns the word now.
Wikipedia pageviews since 2015
Fan (admirer)Computer fan
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.
Duplicate's share of attention
Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does
The case for each meaning
Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes
Original · the 1880s
Fan (admirer)
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Duplicate · the 1980s
Computer fan
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More duplicated terms
Hardware & devices
Mouse · Computer mouseMemory · Computer memoryDriver · Device driverBoot · BootingTerminal · Computer terminalMonitor · Computer monitorBus · Bus (computing)Spill · Register spillBrick · Brick (electronics)Beacon · Bluetooth beaconChip · Integrated circuitCore · Core (CPU)Flash · Flash memoryBoard · MotherboardDie · Die (integrated circuit)Fab · Semiconductor fabGate · Logic gateTablet · Tablet computer