infamy

From late Middle English infamie, from Old French infamie, from Latin īnfāmia (“infamy”), from īnfāmis (“infamous”), from in- (“not”) + fāma (“fame, renown”). Displaced native Old English unhlīsa (literally “bad fame”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪnfəmi/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Hyphenation: in‧fa‧my

infamy (countable and uncountable, plural infamies)

1. The state of being infamous.
   1. The state of having a reputation as being evil.
      • 1941 December 8, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Day of Infamy Speech‎:

        Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

2. 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.

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

• fame
• infamous