fane

Definition

A weathercock, a weather vane.

Etymology

From Middle English fane, from Old English fana (“cloth, banner”), from Proto-West Germanic *fanō, from Proto-Germanic *fanô (“cloth, flag”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂n- (“to weave; something woven; cloth, fabric, tissue”). Doublet of fanon and vane.

Example Sentences

• "The ſteeple had become old and ruinous; and therefore the preſent one was built about the year 1740. It had, at that time, four fanes mounted on ſpires, on the four corners; theſe being judged too weak for the fanes, were taken down in 1764, and the roof of the ſteeple altered."
• "So fate fell-woven forward drave him, and with malice Mordred his mind hardened, saying that war was wisdom and waiting folly. ‘Let their fanes be felled and their fast places bare and broken, burned their havens, and isles immune from march of arms or Roman reign now reek to heaven in fires of vengeance! [I.18-25]"