infamy

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

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

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.

• fame
• infamous