Vannus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of agricultural tool utilized for winnowing grain by separating the edible part of crops from the chaff with the use of wind or air movement
2. An implement historically employed in harvesting that allows for the cleaning of seeds through the effects of blowing air
3. A device used in farming practices to efficiently remove debris and non-seed materials from freshly harvested cereal grains by catching them with wind

Etymology: Vannus is the Latin word for a winnowing fan, the flat, shallow basket farmers shook and tossed to separate grain from chaff, letting the lighter husks blow away while the heavier kernels fell back into the basket. Its ancestry runs back to the Proto-Indo-European root "wed-" or related forms tied to blowing wind, which is fitting for a tool that works by air. The Latin word is inherited within Latin itself rather than borrowed, and its sense stayed tied to the threshing floor and the harvest. The word survives in English largely through its derivatives. "Winnow" comes from Old English "windwian," from "wind," and became the common English verb, so English speakers have long had their own word for the same action. The Latin noun itself appears in English mainly in scholarly or technical contexts, such as botany and zoology, where "vannus" names structures that resemble a fan or winnowing basket.

Synonyms: winnowing fan, winnowing basket