​VANE (formerly spelt "fane," i.e. pennon, flag; cf. Ger. Fahne, Du. vaan, Fr. girouette, Ital. banderuola, Ger. Wetterjahne), the weathercock on a steeple. Vanes seem in early times to have been of various forms, as dragons, &c; but in the Tudor period the favourite design was a beast or bird sitting on a slender pedestal and carrying an upright rod, on which a thin plate of metal is hung like a flag, ornamented in various ways.