Etymologically
Log in

fameux

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 03:49. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Forms

fameux (feminine fameuse, masculine plural fameux, feminine plural fameuses)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fāmōsus (“well known, renowned; notorious”), from fāma (“report, reputation”).[2][3][4][5] The TLFi and Rey date the borrowing to the early 14th century, in the form famose;[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert give the 15th century.[4][6] Littré notes that the word has no circumflex because its ⟨a⟩ is short, although some provinces nevertheless pronounced it long.[7]

Compare Old Occitan famos, Spanish famoso and Italian famoso.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in a famose cité, a famous city, in the French version of Aimé du Mont-Cassin's history of the Normans (early 14th century).[2]

Semantic evolution

Like the Latin word, fameux was used of renown both good and bad, a sense now literary.[3][8] From 1730, in Marivaux, it came to mean “remarkable of its kind”, very good or very bad depending on the noun, as in a fameuse canaille.[3][9][8] The sense “excellent” is found in Balzac (1846) and in a dictionary of 1835;[10][2] Littré still labelled it popular.[7] Placed before the noun, the adjective is also used ironically of something much talked about (end of the 19th century, Daudet).[9][8]

The adverb fameusement (1642) now survives only as a familiar intensive, “very” (1834).[3][2]

Timeline

  • Early 14th century – Famose cité in Aimé du Mont-Cassin.[2]
  • 15th century – The date of the borrowing in Bloch and Wartburg.[4]
  • 1642 – The adverb fameusement.[2]
  • 1730 – Marivaux uses it for “remarkable of its kind”.[9][3]
  • 1835 – “Excellent”, in Platt's dictionary.[10]
  • End of the 19th century – Ironic use before the noun, in Daudet.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (literary) famous, having a great reputation, good or bad: une région fameuse pour ses vins.[8][9]
  2. (before the noun, ironic) Much talked about: ta fameuse méthode ne marche pas.[8][9]
  3. (before the noun) Remarkable of its kind, very good or very bad: une fameuse erreur.[8][7]
  4. (familiar) Very good, excellent, especially of food or drink.[8][7] Pas fameux: not very good, mediocre.[8][7]

Word family

  • fameusement

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 409a
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  10. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF