notorietas

Forms

nōtōrietās f (genitive nōtōrietātis); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin nōtōrius (“well known”) + -tās in Medieval Latin.^[3][1] The adjective goes back to nōtus (“known”), the participle of nōscō (“to get to know”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the DMLBS date its first record to 1280,^[1][3] in an English episcopal register that speaks of an inquiry by trustworthy men into the notoriety of an intrusion into a church.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant the state of being widely known, notoriety, also with reference to how far something was known.^[3] In legal and church writing the phrase notorietas facti “the notoriety of the fact” served as evidence in itself:^[3][5] a Polish preacher held that one may not appeal against a sentence or excuse oneself on account of the notoriety of the fact.^[5] Du Cange glosses it as public knowledge or evidence, and cites it from the Council of Pisa of 1409.^[6] In Poland it also meant knowledge of something.^[5]

Timeline

• 1280 – An English episcopal register uses it of the notoriety of an intrusion.^[3][1]
• 1330 – A Hereford register learns of a poorly endowed office “from the notoriety of the fact”.^[3]
• 1409 – The Council of Pisa uses the word.^[6]
• 1590s – Borrowed into English, from French or directly from Medieval Latin, as notoriety.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) The state of being widely known, notoriety.^[3][2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin, law) Public knowledge as evidence of a fact.^[6][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) Knowledge of something.^[5]

Related words

• nosco
• English notoriety

References

1. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
2. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
6. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre