vanen.
/veɪn/, U.S. /veɪn/ 1. in extended use.1839 C. Darwin in R. Fitzroy & C. Darwin Narr. Surv. Voy. H.M.S. Adventure & Beagle III. i. 3 The direction of the branches was exactly N.E. by N., and S.W. by S. These natural vanes must indicate the prevailing direction of the force of the trade wind.1849 J. F. W. Herschel Man. Sci. Enq. (Lords Commissioners Admiralty) 287 The direction of the wind as well as its force should be registered at each observation; and for this it is well to have a small compass with a vane of card, or thin and very moveable sheet brass.
a. A plate of metal, usually of an ornamental form, fixed at an elevation upon a vertical spindle, so as to turn readily with the wind and show the direction from which this is blowing; a weather-cock.Vanes are a common addition to the tops of spires or other pinnacles of buildings.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > study or science of weather > meteorological instruments > [noun] > wind-vane or weather-cock
cock?a1300
weathercocka1300
fanec1386
vane1425
fan?a1500
thane1570
weather-flag1611
eagle-cock1694
girella1720
weathervane1721
dogvane1769
weather-fane1773
girouette1822
wind-vane1858
pendant1860
wind-cock1920
1425 in W. Kennett Parochial Antiq. (1818) II. 254 Cum ii ventilogiis, viz. vanys de Tyn emptis..ponendis super utrumque finem prædicti dormitorii.
1479–81 in H. Littlehales Medieval Rec. London City Church (1905) 103 Item, for mendyng of the vane of the steple.
1484 W. Caxton tr. G. de la Tour-Landry Bk. Knight of Tower (1971) xi. 25 Be ye not like ne semblable the tortuse ne to the Crane. which..wynde their hede here and there as a vane.
1532 in E. Law Hist. Hampton Court Palace (1885) 364 A vayn servyng for the stone typis at the gabull ende of the Tennys play.
1572–3 in H. J. F. Swayne Churchwardens' Accts. Sarum (1896) 287 Taking downe of the vane and mending of him.
1597 T. Middleton Wisdome of Solomon Paraphr. xiv. sig. R3v Like as a vane is turn'd with euery blast.
a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1654 (1955) III. 110 These were adorn'd with variety of Dials, little Statues, Vanes &c: very ornamental.
1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers ii. xix. 325 When I see a spire at a very great distance there appears no vane at the top.
1826 W. Scott Woodstock I. ii. 31 One or two..venerable turrets, bearing each its own vane of rare device glittering in the autumn sun.
1849 M. Somerville On Connexion Physical Sci. (ed. 8) xv. 138 Thus two alternations of north and south wind will cause the vane at any place to go completely round the compass.
1880 L. Morris Ode of Life 130 The old grey church, with the tall spire, Whose vane the sunsets fire.
b. figurative. An unstable or constantly changing person or thing.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > changeableness > [noun] > changeable person or thing
weathercocka1300
wind?a1513
Proteus1528
chameleon1586
moon's man1598
vane1598
mooncalf1607
remover1609
tarand1641
inconstant1647
mutables1652
changeablea1711
kaleidoscope1819
phantasmagoria1822
palimpsest1845
variable1846
1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. i. 94 What plume of fethers is he that indited this letter? What vaine [1623 veine]? What Wethercock? View more context for this quotation
a1625 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Four Plays in One in Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Dddddddd3/2 My desire's a vane that the least breath from her turns every way.
1850 D. G. Mitchell Reveries of Bachelor 133 Who is going to shift this vane of my desires?
c. Nautical. A piece of bunting fixed to a wooden frame, which turns on a spindle at the mast-head to show the direction of the wind. (See also dogvane n.)
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > masts, rigging, or sails > spar > [noun] > mast > upper part of mast > vane showing wind direction
van1698
vane1707
1707 E. Ward Wooden World Dissected 3 Some compare her [sc. the ship] to a Common-wealth and carry the Alligory from the Vane down to the Keelson.
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine Vane, a thin slip of bunting hung to the mast-head, or some other conspicuous place..to show the direction of the wind.
1863 Rep. Sea Fisheries Comm. (1865) II. 404/2 Do you [trawlers] carry any particular kind of vane?—Yes, until it blows away; we generally carry a red vane.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. 709 A distinguishing vane denotes the division of a fleet to which a ship of the line belongs, according to the mast on which it is borne.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > indication > insignia > heraldic devices collective > [noun] > armorial bearings or coat of arms > flag-shaped plate
vane1502
1502 Marr. Pr. Arthur in Antiq. Rep. (1808) II. 260 A red lyon rampand, holdyng a vane enpeynted with the armys of Englond.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VIII f. lxxxxvii Ouer the gates wer arches with towers embattailed set with vanes and scutchions of the armes of the Emperor & the Kyng.
1574 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxf. (1880) 351 For..coloringe the beasts and the vanes and the Quenes armes..with good colors and oyles.
3.
a. A sail of a windmill.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > mills > [noun] > windmill > sail
sailc1440
wing1484
ventaila1529
vane1581
sweep1702
arm1724
windsail1725
wind-vane1725
swift1763
wan1767
flyer1790
van1837
1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius 482 All thinges are carryed about in a certaine vehement whyrling unstablenesse, as it were the fleyng vanes of a windemill.
16.. Anc. Poems, Ball., etc. (Percy Soc.) 47 They have a castle on a hill, I took it for an old wind-mill, The vanes blown off by weather.
1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique at Windmill Made with vertical Sails, like the ordinary Windmils,..placed on an Axis of a proportionable length to the length of the Vanes.
1754 J. Shebbeare Marriage Act I. iv. 24 [She] took occasion to utter three or four Sighs,..each of which would have turned the Vanes of a Windmill.
1804 C. Smith Conversations II. 49 The miller shewed me the machinery..and how it works the mill by the action of those vanes or sails.
1864 G. W. Dasent Jest & Earnest (1873) I. 182 The women with a curious cap with an erection on it like two vanes of a windmill flapping in the air.
b. A blade, wing, or similar projection attached to an axis, wheel, etc., so as to be acted upon by a current of air or liquid or to produce a current by rotation.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > wheel > [noun] > parts of wheels > other parts
vane1815
web1828
offset1850
wheel-guard1860
spade1862
pulley cone1903
1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 17 Each axis has four or more thin arms or vanes fixed into it; the vanes are similar in all respects, except in their position.
1824 ‘R. Stuart’ Descr. Hist. Steam Engine 150 On the circumference of a wheel eight vanes or flaps are attached by joints.
1832 G. R. Porter Treat. Manuf. Porcelain & Glass 38 An upright shaft furnished with arms or vanes for the purpose of agitation.
1867 W. W. Smyth Treat. Coal & Coal-mining 211 Fans.—These instruments, with straight radial vanes, were abundantly used in the German mines..about 1550.
c. A revolving fan or wheel.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > gas > air > fresh air > [noun] > supplying fresh air or ventilation > fan > rotating
vane1810
fan1835
propeller fan1850
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > wheel > [noun] > other wheels
well wheel1535
rundle1611
rown-wheel1688
walking wheel1730
side wheel1731
tirl1793
rigger1797
idle wheel1805
vane1842
Gypsy1850
air wheel1860
wind-wheel1867
sprocket1879
friction-wheel1888
Geneva wheel1891
idler1899
1810 G. Crabbe Borough x. 141 Ev'n the poor ventilating Vane, that flew Of late so fast, is now grown drowsy too.
1842 G. W. Francis Dict. Arts (at cited word) Vane is also synonymous with fly or fly wheel.
1842 G. W. Francis Dict. Arts at Vane, Electrical When..the vane is placed near to it, the strength of the current will be sufficient to impel the vane forward, so that it will rotate on its centre.
4. A sight of a levelling-staff, forestaff, quadrant, or other surveying instrument.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > earth sciences > geography > map-making > surveying > [noun] > surveying instruments > part of a surveying instrument > sight on a surveying instrument
sight1559
vane1594
target1877
1594 T. Blundeville Exercises vii. xvi. f. 316v Turne both your face, and also the vane of the transame towardes the sunne.
1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. ii. xiv. 85 Set the Vane G to a certain number of Degrees,..looking through the Vane F,..draw your Sight-Vane a little lower.
1674 W. Leybourn Compl. Surveyor (ed. 3) 45 Upon the longer Sight is to be placed a Vane of brass, to be moved up and down at pleasure.
1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I. (at cited word) Those Sights which are made to move and slide upon Cross-staves, Fore~staves, Davis Quadrants, &c. the Seamen call Vanes.
1748 B. Robins & R. Walter Voy. round World by Anson iii. iii. 327 The quadrant was eagerly seized, but on examination, it unluckily wanted vanes, and therefore in its present state was altogether useless.
1845 Encycl. Metrop. XXV. 307/1 [In] Houghton's staffs..the vane is circular inlaid with a diamond-shaped lozenge.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. 710 The one opposite to the fore horizon~glass is the foresight-vane, the other the backsight vane.
5. The web of a feather.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > feather > [noun] > part of
pen1381
quill?a1425
dowlc1535
rib1545
web1575
pilec1600
twill1664
beard1688
pinion1691
vane1713
shaft1748
beardlet1804
medulla1826
barb1835
barbule1835
stem1845
feather-pulp1859
aftershaft1867
barbicel1869
filament1870
vexillum1871
scape1872
rachis1874
harl1877
calamus1878
radius1882
ramus1882
scapus1882
cilia1884
1713 W. Derham Physico-theol. vii. i. 375 The Mechanism of the Vanes or Webs of Feathers.
1769 Philos. Trans. 1768 (Royal Soc.) 58 92 Their texture is equally extraordinary; the shafts broad and very thin; the vanes unwebbed.
1834 R. Mudie Feathered Tribes Brit. Islands I. 14 The larger ribs of the webs or vanes of not a few are of considerable substance and strength.
1875 C. C. Blake Zoology 94 The vane consists of barbs which proceed at right angles to the shaft.
Compounds
vane-pin, vane-spindle, vane staff, vane-surmounted adj., vane-wheel.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > study or science of weather > meteorological instruments > [noun] > wind-vane or weather-cock > parts of
swallowtail1842
vane-spindle1844
vane-pin1889
1844 in Noad Electricity (ed. 2) 95 The balls from which arise the vane-spindles of the two churches.
1845 Encycl. Metrop. XXV. 306/2 The vane staff is more calculated for the purpose [than the levelling staff].
1846 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) ix. 84 Then came rows of houses, with little vane-surmounted masts uprearing themselves from among the scarlet beans.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Vane-spindle, the pivot on which the masthead-vane turns.
1889 P. H. Emerson Eng. Idyls 22 She was black from stem to stern, from keel to vane-pin.
1922 Glasgow Herald 28 June 9 The vane wheels may be placed side by side abaft the stern of the ship.
Derivatives
vane-like adj.
ΚΠ
1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 91 Versatilis, vane-like.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1916; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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