For the time being you will have to live with implying blind devotion when using the word “fan” to describe something other than an air circulation tool, since it was recently used in that fashion and sometimes still is. So even if you prefer the descriptive approach to linguistics this meaning is still relevant.
Side note, purely descriptive linguistics strike me as madness. I mean if the purpose of language is communication then constantly changing the definitions is kind of antithetical to that. Texts would become illegible in decades rather than centuries.
For the time being you will have to live with implying blind devotion when using the word “fan” to describe something other than an air circulation tool, since it was recently used in that fashion and sometimes still is. So even if you prefer the descriptive approach to linguistics this meaning is still relevant.
Side note, purely descriptive linguistics strike me as madness. I mean if the purpose of language is communication then constantly changing the definitions is kind of antithetical to that. Texts would become illegible in decades rather than centuries.