fama

Forms

fama f (plural fame)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin fāma (“talk, rumour; public opinion; reputation”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word gave Old French fame (modern French fâme, now out of use), Old Occitan fama and Spanish fama.^[3][5][6] Romanian faimă has an ⟨i⟩ taken from īnfāmia (“disgrace”).^[7]

The Latin noun comes from the verb for (“to speak, say”), and Isidore wrote that the word is so called “because it wanders about by speaking”.^[2][8][9] It goes back to Proto-Italic *fāmā, from the noun Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂meh₂ (“speech”), from *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”).^[9][1] The closest cognate is Ancient Greek φήμη (phḗmē, “speech, report”), Doric φάμα (phā́mā), which Devoto calls identical with the Latin word.^[9][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century.^[11] DELI's first record is in Iacopo Mostacci, of the Sicilian school, at the start of the 13th century, with the sense “renown, celebrity”.^[2] The TLIO's first sense is the common knowledge or memory of something or someone of the past.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The sense “news, report spreading quickly among people” is in Dante (1304–1308), who writes in the Convivio that la fama dilata lo bene e lo male oltre la vera quantità, “fame enlarges good and evil beyond their true size”.^[2][8] In Old Italian a witness di fama could testify from common report rather than from what he had seen, and Fame also appears as an allegorical figure.^[11] Dante could use the word for an ill opinion, a discredit, a sense now obsolete.^[12]

Over time the plain sense of reputation, good or bad (buona, cattiva fama), and the sense of celebrity became the main ones, while “rumour” is now literary, chiefly in è fama che, “it is said that”.^[4][13][12] The related Latin derivatives followed different paths: famoso is recorded before 1292, and famigerato, “famous” in Firenzuola (before 1543), came in the 19th century to mean “notorious”, a change DELI traces through the dictionaries of 1855 to 1865.^[2]

Timeline

• Last quarter of the 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use the word.^[11]
• Early 13th century – Iacopo Mostacci uses fama for renown.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for a widely spread report.^[2]
• Before 1543 – Firenzuola uses famigerato for “famous”.^[2]
• 1858 – Cantù's dictionary records famigerato only in the sense “notorious”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. reputation, what people think of someone: godere di buona fama, avere fama di something.^[4][13][14]
2. fame, renown, celebrity: Il romanzo le diede la fama a trent’anni.^[4][13][14]
3. (literary) A rumour or report that spreads quickly: è fama che, it is said that.^[4][13][12]

Word family

• malfamato

Related words

• famoso
• famigerato
• diffamare
• fato
• facondo
• Latin fāma

Usage notes

Di chiara fama is “of great renown”, and a professor appointed per chiara fama is chosen for his reputation.^[4][15] Conoscere qualcuno di fama is to know someone only by repute, and lavorare per la fama is jocular for working without pay.^[4][15] The word is used only in the singular.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1591
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 619
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana