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

[Laurence Horn]

OK, Here's the OED, sense 1b (1a concerns notorious, i.e. well-known, facts, also not specifically reprehensible ones):

 1b. Of a person, place, etc.: well or widely known; famous; (in later use) esp. noted for a particular quality or feature. Cf. sense A. 5b.

1555   R. Eden Other notable Thynges touchynge Indies in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 319,   A famous and notorious place amonge the Indians.
1588   ‘M. Marprelate’ Epistle (1843) 40   Manie of you..are men verie notorious for their learning and preaching.
1610   P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. To Rdr. sig. 5,   I purposed to mention any but such [towns and castles] as were most notorious.
1614   S. Purchas Pilgrimage (ed. 2) 44   Of Cham is the name Chemmis in Ægypt; and Ammon the Idoll and Oracle so notorious.
1778   S. Foote Cozeners i. i. 26   Mrs. Fl. Then the Doctor sings, I Presume. Mrs. Sim. Not a better pipe at the playhouse; He has long been notorious for that.
1865   G. Grote Plato I. 136   Where was the person to be found, notorious and accessible, who could say [etc.].
1927   R. Hoffmann Birds Pacific States in Webster's Dict. Eng. Usage (1989) 669/2   The flight of the Loon is very swift and direct; it is notorious for its ability to dive instantly.
1955   S. H. Adams Grandfather Stories 119   He is..notorious through all the docks of Erie, from Albany to Buffalo, for his probity and his sportsmanship.
1992   Daily Mirror (BNC)    I trained as often and as hard as I could, as hard as anybody on the staff—and that includes my old pal Bryan Robson, who was notorious for his unflagging effort.

At 4 we get into the pejorative senses (for "depreciative or unfavourable connotations", "noted or well known for its egregiousness; flagrant.", etc.).  But as the entry notes, "In some cases it is not possible to ascertain the writer's intent."

So perhaps our flabbergasted/horrified reaction to the positive/neutral uses of "notorious" exhibits a bit of the recency effect.

LH

> On Aug 14, 2016, at 3:01 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
>> 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."
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=CwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=1DE08I7-R2xSSAXklmEkDglrn0xoEw2eyCIYD0oKP1k&s=FrPJvH4k5UrdTaT3cm7vFl8Klbo6CoF43PeWDGqSjBI&e= 
>>> 
>> 
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> 

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