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Today, on #LinguisticsWithSlava
The Russian word for a sports fan is "bolel'shchik." I'll explain in a minute. But first, did you know that for a long time Americans had no word for it?
Sports fans appeared in the US in the 1850s, but the word didn't come about until early XX c..

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 24, 2021

Slava Malamud goes on to explain the Russian relationship between fandom and pain:

The word "bolel'shchik" tells you all you need to know about the Russian approach. We did adopt the English word (in the form of "fanaty"), but it describes soccer hooligans exclusively.
"Bolel'shchik" is ours. Oh so very, very ours.
The root word is "bol", which means "pain"

"Bolet" is a verb derived from it. Its meaning is "to be ill." Therefore, "bolel'shchik" is someone who feels constant pain and/or is very sick. However, the word applies exclusively to sports supporters. A regular ill person is "bol'noi."
How Dostoyevskian is this shit?

The prevailing emotion of a Russian football fan (and this is where the word originated) is, of course, pain. Constant, unyielding feelings of sickness and discomfort that can only be understood if you ever sat on a wooden bench to watch a 0-0 slog in half-frozen mud in Saratov.

To support a sports team, in Russian culture, primarily means to experience pain, to be emotionally unwell, to subject one's mental health to voluntary mistreatment. To be unhealthily addicted to something bad.
Don't ever ask me why I root for the Buffalo Bills and Sabres again.

The OED glosses (the relevant sense of) fan as "A fanatic; in modern English (originally U.S.): a keen and regular spectator of a (professional) sport, originally of baseball; a regular supporter of a (professional) sports team; (hence) a keen follower of a specified hobby or amusement, and (gen.) an enthusiast for a particular person or thing", with citations back to 1682:

1682 ‘T. Rationalis’ New News from Bedlam 13 The Loyal Phans to abuse.
1682 ‘T. Rationalis’ New News from Bedlam 40 To be here Nurs'd up, Loyal Fanns to defame, And damn all Dissenters on purpose for gain.
1890 Omaha (Nebraska) Sunday Bee 2 Feb. ii. There has not been much enthusiasm shown among the baseball fans of the city.
1896 G. Ade Artie xvii. 158 I'm goin' to be the worst fan in the whole bunch.
1901 Dial. Notes 2 139 Fan, a base ball enthusiast; common among reporters.

The 17th-century quotes (about which more later) refer to politico-religious zealots rather than to sports-team supporters, and the OED's etymology notes that this "Abbreviation of fanatic adj. and n." was "Re-formed in 19th cent."

Wiktionary's etymology also suggests that this sense of fan , though derived from fanatic, was also "Possibly influenced by fancy (“group of sport or hobby enthusiasts”), fancy boy (“fan”), &c.", and the entry for fancy has senses:

7. Any sport or hobby pursued by a group.
Synonyms: hobby; see also Thesaurus:hobby
Trainspotting is the fancy of a special lot.
8. The enthusiasts of such a pursuit.
He fell out of favor with the boxing fancy after the incident.

As for fanatic, it comes from Latin fānāticus, which in turn is formed from fānum "temple".

Lewis & Short glosses fānāticus as "Inspired by a divinity, enthusiastic." Clearly this is the older sense of enthusiastic, which the OED glosses as "Designating a person who claims (falsely or erroneously) to receive divine communication or inspiration; […] also in wider sense: relating to, of the nature of, or characterized by mystical, fanatical, or radical religious delusion. "

A good example classical texts is this passage from Cicero's De Divinatione:

57. Sed, quod caput est, cur isto modo iam oracla Delphis non eduntur non modo nostra aetate, sed iam diu, ut modo nihil possit esse contemptius? hoc loco cum urguentur, ' evanuisse,' aiunt, ' vetustate vim loci eius, unde anhelitus ille terrae fieret, quo Pythia mente incitata oracla ederet.' De vino aut salsamento putes loqui, quae evanescunt vetustate. De vi loci agitur, neque solum naturali, sed etiam divina; quae quo tandem modo evanuit? 'Vetustate,' inquies. quae 'vetustas' est quae vim divinam conficere possit? quid tam divinum autem quam afflatus e terra mentem ita movens, ut eam providam rerum futurarum efficiat, ut ea non modo cernat multo ante, sed etiam numero versuque pronuntiet? quando ista vis autem evanuit? an postquam homines minus creduli esse coeperunt?

Demosthenes quidem, qui abhinc annos prope trecentos fuit, iam tum φιλιππίζειν Pythiam dicebat, id est quasi cum Philippo facere. hoc autem eo spectabat, ut eam a Philippo corruptam diceret. quo licet existimare in aliis quoque oraculis Delphicis aliquid non sinceri fuisse. sed nescio quo modo isti philosophi superstitiosi et paene fanatici quidvis malle videntur quam se non ineptos. evanuisse mavultis et extinctum esse id quod si umquam fuisset, certe aeternum esset, quam ea quae non sunt credenda non credere.

57. However, the main question is this: Why are Delphic oracles (of which I have just given you examples) not uttered at the present time and have not been for a long time? And why are they regarded with the utmost contempt? When pressed at this point their apologists affirm that 'the long flight of time has gradually dissipated the virtue of the place whence came those subterranean exhalations which inspired the Pythian priestess to utter oracles.' One might think that they are talking about wine or brine which do evaporate. But the question is about the virtue of a place—a virtue which you call not only 'natural' but even 'divine,'—pray how did it evaporate? 'By length of time,' you say. But what length of time could destroy a divine power? And what is as divine as a subterranean exhalation that inspires the soul with power to foresee the future—a power such that it not only sees things a long time before they happen, but actually foretells them in rhythmic verse? When did the virtue disappear? Was it after men began to be less credulous?

By the way, Demosthenes, who lived nearly three hundred years ago, used to say even then that the Pythian priestess 'philippized', in other words, that she was Philip's ally. By this expression he meant to infer that she had been bribed by Philip. Hence we may conclude that in other instances the Delphic oracles were not entirely free of guile. But, for some inexplicable cause, those superstitious and half-cracked philosophers of yours would rather appear absurd than anything else in the world. You Stoics, instead of rejecting these incredible tales, prefer to believe that a power had gradually faded into nothingness, whereas if it ever had existed it certainly would be eternal. [source]

And this leads us to the 17th-century examples (diversely spelled, by the same author, as "Phans" and "Fanns"), which come from a political screed with a spectacularly exuberant 151-word title:

 

New News from BEDLAM:
OR More Work for Towzer and his Brother Ravenscroft. ALIAS Hocus Pocuus Whipt and Stript:
OR a Ra-ree New Fashion CUPPING-GLASS Most humbly represented to the Observator
Wherein the various Shapes , and present Legerdemain Postures, Principles and Practices of the bold and most Insolent Factors for the infallible Chair (both in Church and State) are yet more and more unvailed and discovered.
As it was lately Represented in a plain honest Country Dialogue, (viz. both Serious, Comical, Satyrical, Tragical and Theological) to a True Loyal Protestant-Association of Master and Scholars, to be Acted by them at the next Breaking up of their Grammar-School, and then, and there, it is shrewdly suspected (by a Vote of Nemine Contradicente) 'twill be Resolved, That a Second Impression of the said Dialogue, with Appurtenances, shall be forthwith promoted and Published for the present Satisfaction and farther Information of the People.

By Theophilus Rationalis, one of Heraclitus Ridens, Nat Thompson's, and the most profound Observator's Wise Men of Gotham, although a most Sincere, and True Lover of King and Country.

Post Tenebras Splendet, surgit post Nubila Phoebus.

Theophilus Rationalis was apparently a pseudonym for Henry Duke, about whom I haven't been able to learn anything more.

You can look through the book yourself to find the contexts of Phans and Fanns.

And of course there's also stan — see "K-pop stans troll Trump", 6/22/2020.

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Update — Antedating the OED's first baseball fan citation, here's the Kansas City Times for May 1, 1886:

 

November 26, 2021 @ 1:54 pm · Filed by Mark Liberman under Words words words

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