Plural of fanning; broken or crushed grain or dust produced by fanning or winnowing grain.
From 'fanning' (the gerund of 'fan') + '-s'. 'Fanning' comes from 'fan' + '-ing'. In grain processing, 'fannings' became the technical term for the byproduct of winnowing.
In old grain mills, 'fannings' weren't just waste—they became valuable feed for livestock, turning what seemed like a byproduct into a commodity, which shows how medieval economics squeezed value out of every part of the production process.
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