Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Ventilabrum

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

VENTILA'BRUM (θρῖναξ). A winnowing-fork; employed for separating the grains of corn, beans, and other leguminous plants from the straw and stalks, when the crop was threshed out together with them; and, consequently, had been reaped in the common manner, with a sickle (falx), instead of having the ears or pods only nicked off from the standing plant by a comb (pecten), or a hand-fork (merga), as was a frequent practice with the ancient farmers (Columell. ii. 10. 14. Compare ii. 20. 3 — 5.) The instrument was a fork with three or four prongs, with which the labourer raked out the straw, and tossed it up to a considerable distance from him through the air, so that the breeze, which for the operation was required to be pretty stiff, would carry off the chaff and straw, while the heavier grain fell back upon the ground, and could be finally cleansed by a wooden shovel (pala lignea) or a winnowing-van (vannus). The practice is still pursued in Spain, where the instrument employed is designated by a similar name, aventador, which, like the Latin one, refers to the action of the wind, so necessary for its efficient use. Townsend's Itinerary, vol. 3. p. 314.