An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Fant

by Friedrich Kluge

Fant, masculine, ‘coxcomb,’ a Low German form (compare Dutch vent, ‘a would-be wit, fool’), for Middle High German vanz, masculine, ‘rogue’ (still existing in alfanz, literally ‘vagabond’; compare Modern High German Firle, Fanz, the first part of which is obscure, perhaps connected with Anglo-Saxon fyrlen, ‘foreign’?). See Alfanzerei.