notoriety

Etymology

Derived from Middle French notoriété, from Medieval Latin nōtōrietās, from nōtōrius, from nōtus (“known”), perfect passive participle of nōscō (“get to know”). By surface analysis, notorious +‎ -ety.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /nəʊ.təˈɹaɪ.ə.ti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /noʊ.tɚ.aɪ.ə.ti/
• Rhymes: -aɪɪti

Noun

notoriety (countable and uncountable, plural notorieties)

1. An infamous or notorious condition or reputation.
   • 1799, Charles Brockden Brown, Arthur Mervyn:

     [H]e who portrays examples of disinterestedness and intrepidity, confers on virtue the notoriety and homage that are due to it, and rouses in the spectators, the spirit of salutary emulation.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.