infamous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin īnfāmōsus,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which replaced īnfāmis (“of ill fame, disreputable”),^[3][6][7] formed in- (“not”) and fāmōsus (“celebrated”), the source of famous.^[8][9] The OED compares the rare Old French infameux,^[2] and Barnhart thinks it may have been influenced by that word.^[9] The Latin adjective īnfāmis, from in- and fāma (“report, reputation”), the source of fame,^[10][11][6] was also used in Middle English as infamis.^[11][10][2] According to Etymonline the modern word is a 16th-century merger of the two, taking its form from infamous (early 15th century) and its meaning from infamis, of ill repute (late 14th century).^[8] Ayto points out that the Latin prefix here meant positively "bad", not simply "not", so the adjective meant "of ill repute" and never just "not well known".^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of bad repute, notorious for wickedness: about 1380, of things, in the English Wycliffite sermons;^[2][12] Barnhart dates infamis in the sense "wicked, notorious" to about 1378,^[9] Etymonline to the late 14th century,^[8] and Merriam-Webster to the 14th century.^[11] Dictionary.com gives 1350–1400.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Used of persons, the sense "of evil fame" is recorded from 1533, in Thomas More.^[2] From 1490 (Caxton) the word also meant deserving infamy, shamefully bad, and the OED calls it one of the strongest adjectives of condemnation in English.^[2] Etymonline dates the meaning "causing infamy" to the 1550s.^[8][2] In law, an infamous person was one deprived of some or all of the rights of a citizen after conviction for certain crimes (1548),^[2][14] and an infamous crime or punishment one that brought such loss of rights (before 1575);^[2] Etymonline dates the legal sense to the late 14th century.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as publicly branded with guilt, openly censured.^[15] The neutral fameless, in the sense "not famous", is recorded from the 1590s.^[8] Weekley compared the strengthening of the negative sense with some compounds of dis-.^[16]

Timeline

• c1378 – infamis, wicked, notorious.^[9]
• c1380 – of ill fame, of things.^[2]
• 1490 – deserving infamy.^[2]
• 1533 – of persons, notorious.^[2]
• 1548 – (law) deprived of a citizen's rights.^[2]
• 1555 – of things, shamefully bad.^[2][8]
• 1755 – Johnson: publicly branded with guilt.^[15]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Well known for something bad; notorious: The bandit was infamous throughout the valley.
2. Shocking or wicked enough to bring disgrace: an infamous betrayal.
3. (law, historical) Of a person: having lost certain civil rights on conviction for a serious crime; of a crime or punishment: entailing such a loss.

Word family

• infamously
• infamousness
• infamy

Related words

• fame
• famous
• notorious

Usage notes

The OED notes that the word was formerly stressed on the second syllable, as inˈfamous, still so in Bailey's dictionary of 1730, though Milton already stressed the first.^[2] Dictionary.com compares famous, infamous and notorious: famous implies good repute, infamous a bad reputation, and notorious wide knowledge, usually of something unfavourable.^[13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray