notorius

Forms

nōtōrius (feminine nōtōria, neuter nōtōrium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is an adjective in ⟨-tōrius⟩.^[1] Georges, Gaffiot and Köbler derive it from notō (“to mark, note”);^[2][3][4] L&S from a noun nōtor,^[5] and Wiktionary connects it with nōscō (“to get to know”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Apuleius, as the noun notōria, a report: his narrator speaks of the man who had brought a false report about him (qui falsam de me notoriam pertulerat).^[5][2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it meant “giving notice, making known”, and was used almost only as a noun: notōria (a letter of) notice or information, and notōrium an information laid against someone, a denunciation, in the jurists and Christian writers.^[5][2] The Digest speaks of informers who denounce people per notoria indicia.^[5]

In Medieval Latin it came to mean the reverse, “known to all, notorious, proved by common knowledge”,^[6][1] and in Ecclesiastical Latin “widely known”, with the adverb notōriē.^[7] Niccolò Perotti notes that what is called manifestarius is commonly said notorius, and Albrecht von Eyb uses it of facts so well known that rumour has spread them through Bamberg.^[8] English borrowed the Medieval Latin word as notorious in the 1540s.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses notōria for a report.^[5][2][4]
• c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus uses notōrium.^[5][4]
• 533 AD – The Digest speaks of denunciations per notoria indicia.^[5][4]
• 1540s – English borrows it as notorious, “publicly known and spoken of”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) Giving notice, making known; mostly as a noun (notōria, notōrium) a notice, report, or denunciation.^[5][2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) Evident, well known, notorious; proved by common knowledge.^[6][1][7][8]

Word family

• nōtōria

Related words

• nota
• notābilis
• notāculum
• notāria
• notārius
• notātiō
• notātus
• nōtēscō
• nōtificō
• nōtiō
• English notorious

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com