[Ads-l] notorious = 'well regarded or recognized'

[Laurence Horn]

> On Aug 14, 2016, at 2:09 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Perhaps just following 'notoriety' from the dark side to the light?

Can't connect to the OED at the moment due to VPN sickness, but I wonder whether the positive (or just evaluatively unmarked) sense/use has always been with us to some extent.  After all, the Latin source, _notorius_, just meant famous, and various online dictionaries offer definitions like 'well-known or famous especially for something bad'.  So perhaps the pejoration, whenever it happened, either didn't take completely or has bleached out for some speakers (cf. "enormity" as well as "notoriety", "terribly", "awfully",...).  I think there are other examples I'm not recalling at the moment.

LH  
> 
> On Aug 14, 2016 1:34 PM, "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> CNN reports the death of a Syrian first responder who was "notorious
>> for pulling a baby out of the rubble."
>> 
>> Maybe they were trying to find a synonym for "infamous."
>> 
>> JL
>> 
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>> 
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