infamy

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French infamie, from Latin īnfāmia (“infamy”), from īnfāmis (“infamous”), from in- (“not”) + fāma (“fame, renown”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪnfəmi/
• Hyphenation: in‧fa‧my

Noun

infamy (countable and uncountable, plural infamies)

1. The state of being infamous.
2. A reputation as being evil.

   "Infamy, infamy - they've all got it in for me!" - Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar in Carry On Cleo

   "A date which will live in infamy" - Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.

3. A reprehensible occurrence or situation.
   • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 8, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 251:

     'All for a pig of a man who should have gone to the chair. It is an infamy that he did not.'

4. (law) A stigma attaching to a person's character that disqualifies them from being a witness.

Related terms

• fame
• infamous

Translations

the state of being infamous

• Bulgarian: позор (bg) m (pozor), безчестие (bg) n (bezčestie)
• Catalan: infàmia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 罵名／骂名 (zh) (màmíng), 骂名 (zh) (màmíng), 污名 (zh) (wūmíng)

• Dutch: berucht (nl)
• Esperanto: fifamo
• Faroese: æruloysi n
• Finnish: pahamaineisuus (fi), häpeällisyys
• French: infamie (fr)
• Galician: infamia (gl) f
• German: Schande (de) f
• Italian: infamia (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 汚名 (おめい, omei), 不名誉 (ja) (ふめいよ, fumeiyo), 悪名 (ja) (あくめい, akumei, あくみょう, akumyō)
• Korean: 오명 (ko) (omyeong), 불명예 (bulmyeongye), 악명 (ko) (angmyeong)
• Latin: īnfāmia f
• Norwegian: beryktethet m
• Old English: unhlīsa m, sċand f
• Polish: niesława f
• Portuguese: infâmia (pt) f
• Romanian: infamie (ro) f
• Russian: бессла́вие (ru) n (besslávije), позо́р (ru) m (pozór), дурна́я сла́ва f (durnája sláva)
• Sanskrit: कुख्याति (sa) f (kukhyāti)
• Spanish: infamia (es) f
• Swedish: vanära (sv) c, vanrykte n, vanfrejd (sv) c, äreslöshet c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Estonian: ^{(please verify)} kurikuulus
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}