Etymologically
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notoriety

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /nəʊ.təˈɹaɪ.ə.ti/[1]
  • US: /noʊ.tɚ.aɪ.ə.ti/[1]

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman notoritee, also notoritie, and Middle French notoriété,[2] and partly directly borrowed from Medieval Latin notōrietās (“the state of being well known”),[2][3][4][5] which British sources use from 1280.[2] The Latin noun is formed from nōtōrius (“well-known”) (see notorious),[3][6][2] from Latin nōtus (“known”), the past participle of nōscō (“to come to know”),[3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *gnō- (“to know”).[3][7] The French word is recorded from 1404.[2] The OED compares Spanish notoriedad, Italian notorietà and Portuguese notoriedade.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being widely known, especially for something bad: 1564, in the register of the Christian congregation of St Andrews, in Scotland.[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s,[3] Dictionary.com to 1585–95,[5] and Merriam-Webster's earliest date for its first sense is about 1650.[8]

Semantic evolution

The word followed notorious, which in Medieval Latin meant simply "well known".[3][7] Johnson (1755) still defined it neutrally as "publick knowledge; publick exposure",[9] and Merriam-Webster keeps the sense of something being generally known ("a fact of such notoriety").[8] The unfavourable sense came to dominate, so that the American Heritage Dictionary glosses it as ill fame.[7][3] About 1650 it was also used of a notorious thing or act,[2] and in 1841 Carlyle applied it to a notorious person.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 1564 – the state of being widely known, especially for something bad.[2][4]
  • c. 1650 – a notorious thing, event or act.[2]
  • 1841 – a notorious person, in Carlyle.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The state of being widely known for something bad; infamy or ill fame: The band gained notoriety for wrecking hotel rooms.[7][2][8]
  2. The state of being publicly known or the object of general attention, not necessarily unfavourable.[8][9][2]
  3. A notorious person.[2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ 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.