Also 4 uanni, 5 vane, 5–7 vanne. [Southern var. FAN v.]
1. trans. To winnow with a fan. ? Obs.
1340. [see FAN v. 1].
c. 1467. Noble Bk. Cookry (1882), 86. Tak clene whet and bet it in a mortoire and vane it clene.
1545. Elyot, Euanno, to van corne or other lyke thyng.
1552. Huloet, Vanne or fanne corne, euanno.
1611. Cotgr., Berner, to vanne, or window corne.
1631. Anchoran, Comenius’ Gate Tongues, 87. Hee vanneth, winnoweth and waggeth oates with a wanne.
1648. Hexham, II. Wt-wannen, to Winnowe, or to Vanne out.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vanned, fanned or winnowed.
fig. 14[?]. Langland’s P. Pl., C. XXIII. 168. Elde … wayueth [v.r. vanned] away wanhope.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xl. 332. The Suit or Process, being well vanned and winnowed.
† 2. a. = FAN v. 3. Obs.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Ventulus, Vanne winde saftely on hir in this maner.
† b. To fan; to blow upon. Obs.
1628. Feltham, Resolves, II. viii. 18. Nor does the wound but rankle more, which is vanned by the publike ayre.
3. To separate and test (ore) by washing on a van or shovel. (Earlier in VANNING vbl. sb.1 2.)
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc., xv. 585. We have seen a miner dexterously van pulverised iron pyrites.
1899. Baring-Gould, Bk. of West, II. v. 61. In dressing the ore the miners broke it with their hammers, and then ‘vanned’ it on their broad oak shovels.
