fame
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- //feɪm//
One's reputation.
noun
- 1
archaicSomething said or reported; gossip, rumour.
There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long / Intended to create, and therein plant / A generation, whom his choice regard / Should favour […].
If the accused could produce a specified number of honest neighbours to swear publicly that the suspicion was unfounded, and if no one else came forward to contradict them convincingly, the charge was dropped: otherwise the common fame was held to be true.
- 2
One's reputation.
- 3
The state of being famous or well-known and spoken of, especially for something positive.
I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited.
I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.
Etymology
From Middle English fame, from Old French fame (“celebrity, renown”), itself borrowed from Latin fāma (“talk, rumor, report, reputation”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂-meh₂, from *bʰeh₂- (“to speak, say, tell”). Cognate with Ancient Greek φήμη (phḗmē, “talk”). Related also to Latin for (“speak, say”, verb), Old English bōian (“to boast”), Old English bēn (“prayer, request”), Old English bannan (“to summon, command, proclaim”). More at ban. Displaced native Old English hlīsa.
verb
- 1
to make (someone or something) famous
Forms
- plural
- fames
- past tense
- famed
- past participle
- famed
- present participle
- faming
- third person singular
- fames