BTW, Bob, this is a small matter, but I just went over to OEDILF to see the thread that mentions this. It was alkahuna who pointed it out, not Miss Mimi.
Originally posted by Kalleh: BTW, Bob, this is a small matter, but I just went over to OEDILF to see the thread that mentions this. It was alkahuna who pointed it out, not Miss Mimi.
You're right of course. I don't know how I misread it.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
Fanatic is an interesting word; from the Latin fanaticus 'pertaining to a temple; inspired by divinity, enthusiastic; frantic, furious, mad', from fanum 'a sacred place; temple', from PIE *dhes- 'something religious', whence Greek θεος (theos) 'god'. (The Latin word is also related to feriae 'holidays' and festus 'festive'.)
But not profane as is commonly used today. We'd consider it more mundane, I think. Mircea Eliade's book, "The Sacred and The Profane" uses it in this way. And how many people would see entheusiasm as "god within"?
I found this link about fan interesting, since it talks about fans in other languages. Interesting that fan can mean "Damn!" in Swedish; "leaf" in Rohingya (what's that?); "to wait" in Irish; and "pubic hair" in Hungarian ("fanszőrzet").