fame
pronunciation
How to pronounce fame in British English:
UK [feɪm]
How to pronounce fame in American English:
US [feɪm]
-
- Noun:
- the state or quality of being widely honored and acclaimed
- favorable public reputation
Word Origin
- fame
- fame: [13] Etymologically, fame is ‘being talked about’. The word comes via Old French fame from Latin fāma ‘talk, reputation’. This in turn goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *bha- ‘speak’, which also produced English confess, fable, fate, ineffable, etc. The derivatives famous and infamous are both 14thcentury acquisitions.=> confess, fable, fairy, fate, ineffable, profess
- fame (n.)
- early 13c., "character attributed to someone;" late 13c., "celebrity, renown," from Old French fame "fame, reputation, renown, rumor" (12c.), from Latin fama "talk, rumor, report; reputation, public opinion; renown, good reputation," but also "ill-fame, scandal, reproach," from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say" (cognates: Sanskrit bhanati "speaks;" Latin fari "to say," fabula "narrative, account, tale, story;" Armenian ban, bay "word, term;" Old Church Slavonic bajati "to talk, tell;" Old English boian "to boast," ben "prayer, request;" Greek pheme "speech, voice, utterance, a speaking, talk," phone "voice, sound," phanai "to speak;" Old Irish bann "law"). The goddess Fama was the personification of rumor in Roman mythology. The Latin derivative fabulare was the colloquial word for "speak, talk" since the time of Plautus, whence Spanish hablar. I've always been afraid I was going to tap the world on the shoulder for 20 years, and when it finally turned around I was going to forget what I had to say. [Tom Waits, "Playboy" magazine interview, March, 1988]
Synonym
Example
- 1. The fame galileo sought and obtained , he earned .
- 2. Money bags : she wants money and fame .
- 3. This is a story about fame .
- 4. Second , barriers to fame have been lowered .
- 5. Yet both great riches and fame are transitory , says mr jhunjhunwala .