Etymologically
Log in

fame

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 04:00. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /feɪm/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French fame (“fame, reputation, rumour”),[2][3][4] from Latin fāma (“talk, rumour, report, reputation”),[2][3] related to Greek phḗmē “voice, report”,[3][4][5] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *bha- (“to speak”), the root of Latin fārī “to speak”.[2][4] In Roman mythology the goddess Fama personified rumour.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The character attributed to a person or thing, their reputation: before 1225 in the OED; probably before 1200 in Barnhart, in the Ancrene Riwle.[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Being much talked about, renown or celebrity, is from about 1290, the late 13th century in Etymonline.[6][2] Public report or rumour is from about 1300;[6] Trench noted that the King James Bible often used fame for “report” alone.[7] The sense of reputation survives in house of ill fame, a brothel, from the mid-17th century.[8][9] The verb, to report, is from 1303.[6] Famous is from about 1380, in Chaucer's House of Fame.[3]

Timeline

  • a1225 – reputation.[6]
  • c. 1290 – renown.[6]
  • c. 1300 – rumour.[6]
  • 1303 – the verb, to report.[6]
  • c. 1380 – famous.[3]
  • mid-17th century – house of ill fame.[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The state of being known and talked about by many people; renown.
  2. (archaic) Reputation, or rumour.

Word family

  • fameless
  • famacide
  • outfame
  • hall of fame
  • ill fame

Usage notes

A different obsolete fame meant hunger (before 1533), and the Middle English verb fame “to starve” is an aphetic form of Old French afamer (see famish).[6][10]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press