infamy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English infamie, also infamye,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French infamie (“dishonour, infamous person”) and directly borrowed from Latin īnfāmia (“ill fame, bad repute, dishonour”).^[2][3] The OED takes it only from French, and says that infamie (14th century) replaced earlier Old French infame;^[6] the Anglo-Norman infamie, also enfamie, is recorded from about 1270.^[7] Middle English first had the form infame, from late in the 14th century in Etymonline's dating.^[2][8] The Latin noun is from īnfāmis (“of ill fame, disreputable”), formed from in- (“not, without”) and fāma (“reputation”), the source of fame,^[2][9][10] from Proto-Indo-European *bha- (“to speak, tell, say”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Public disgrace, dishonour, evil fame: early 15th century in Etymonline.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from 1473, in the Rolls of Parliament,^[6] and Dictionary.com dates the word between 1425 and 1475.^[5] The Middle English Dictionary has the form infame in the same sense, in a text of 1413 in a later manuscript, and in Fortescue, of gret infame.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word began with reputation, the disgrace that public report attaches to a person, and soon named an instance of it (1526).^[6] From the early 16th century it also meant the quality of being shamefully vile, and then a shameful act.^[6][2] In 1609 Skene's translation of the Regiam Majestatem shows a legal sense, the loss of a citizen's rights after conviction for certain crimes,^[6] which the Shorter Oxford now treats as historical.^[10] Johnson (1755) defined the word as public reproach and a notorious bad character, with a verse from Ezekiel.^[11] The related verb infame, to brand with infamy, has become archaic, and infamize is attested from the 1590s.^[2]

Timeline

• early 15th century – infamie, public disgrace, evil fame.^[2] The OED has it from 1473.^[6]
• 1510s – the quality of being shamefully vile.^[2] The OED has it from before 1535, in More.^[6]
• 1526 – an instance of disgrace, with a plural.^[6]
• 1609 – in law, the loss of a citizen's rights after conviction.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lasting and widespread evil reputation caused by a shameful or criminal act; public disgrace: The forger's infamy outlived him.^[12][4][6]
2. The quality of being shamefully vile; an extremely shameful act: the infamies of the old regime.^[12][4][6]
3. (law, now historical) The loss of all or some of a citizen's rights after conviction for certain crimes.^[6][10]

Related words

• fame
• infamous
• famous
• defame

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins