A fan-shaped structure, organ, or part found in living things; in classical times, a fan used in religious ceremonies.
From Latin flabellum, derived from flare (to blow), originally meaning a fan. The term evolved to describe any fan-shaped anatomical or botanical structure.
Flabellum is the Latin root that spawned an entire family of scientific words, and it originally meant a ceremonial fan used in Roman temples—showing how practical objects become metaphors for shapes in science.
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