This is how someone's follower or admirer or something enthusiast is called – opera, golf, the new gastronomy, poetry – and comes from the English fan, short for fanatic, that is, fanatic.
This is the one who defends with excessive tenacity and passion beliefs or opinions , especially religious or political, which places him a step above the fan, although some of these come to touch hysteria.
Remember the English teenage girls crying behind their idols in the Beatlemania era or the followers of recent youth icons such as Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga or The Jonas Brothers.
However, the original origin of the word is the Latin word fanaticus, which derives from fanum –temple–. Fanaticus therefore meant "servant of the temple" and initially designated the watchers who guarded it; then it was applied to the adepts to the cult of a certain sanctuary or a divinity. From the same origin it is profanum, a word formed by the prefix pro –delante– and fanum. The profane was what was not consecrated or that had ceased to be, because it was in front – outside – of the temple or sacred precinct.
