[Ads-l] Amelioration of "notoriety"

[Marisa Brook]

Michigan State lost a beloved alumnus recently at the age of 24 and the campus store has been handing out copies of his obituary.<http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/grandrapids/obituary.aspx?pid=180805567> After three graceful, glowing paragraphs describing the young man's accomplishments and family, the fourth paragraph begins as follows:


"Sadler gained notoriety for influencing others through communication."


After that, we get a description of his reportedly well-liked social media presence, which is said to have involved "humor, wit, and philosophy".


Seems to be a use of the word to mean 'popularity' (or at least 'considerable attention') - in a non-facetious obituary in a medium where the words were likely to have been carefully chosen. I'm intrigued. Has anyone else noticed cases of this?





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Marisa Brook
Assistant Professor
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1027 USA
http://linglang.msu.edu/people/faculty/marisa-brook/


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