Obs. Also 6 flable. [ad. L. flābell-um fan, dim. of *flābrum, pl. flābra gusts of wind, f. flāre to blow.] a. A fan. b. Entom., in grasshoppers (see quot. 1658).
1552. Huloet, Flable and fanne idem.
1570. Levins, Manip., 56. A Flabel, flabellum.
1628. Venner, Tobacco (1650), 402. The lungs which are the flabel of the heart.
1658. Rowland, Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 992. They [Grashoppers] sing not with their mouth all men know, as neither by the rubbing of their wings together as the Locust doth, but by the reverberation of a little membrane under the flabells; (so they call those two coverings behinde the hinder thighs cleaving to the belly).
1656–81. Blount, Glossogr., Flabel, a Fan.
