fame (f m)n. 1. a. Great renown: a concert violinist of international fame. b. Public estimation; reputation: a politician of ill fame. 2. Archaic Rumor. tr.v. famed, fam·ing, fames 1. To make renowned or famous. 2. Archaic To report to be. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin f ma; see bh-2 in Indo-European roots.] |
fame [feɪm]
Fame
See Also: GREATNESS
- Celebrities … get consumed just as fast as new improved soaps, new clothing fashions and new ideas —Russell Baker
- Celebrities used to be found like pearls in oysters and with much the same defensive mechanisms —Barbara Walters
- Celebrity is like having an extra lump of sugar in your coffee —Mikhail Baryshnikov
- Fame always melts like ice cream in the dish —Delmore Schwartz
- Fame grows like a tree with hidden life —Horace
- Fame is a colored patch on a ragged garment —Alexander Pushkin
- Fame is like a crop of Canada thistles, very easy to sow, but hard to reap —Josh Billings
In Billings’ phonetic dialect this reads: “Fame is like a crop ov kanada thissels, very eazy tew sew, but hard tew reap.”
- Fame isn’t a thing. It’s a feeling. Like what you get after a pill —Joyce Cary
- Fame … it’s like having a string of pearls given you. It’s nice, but after a while, if you think of it at all, it’s only to wonder if they’re real or cultured —W. Somerset Maugham
- Fame, like a river, is narrowest at its source and broadest afar off —Proverb
- Fame, like a wayward girl, will still be coy to those who woo her with too slavish knees —John Keats
- Fame, like man, will grow white as it grows old —Abraham Cowley
- Fame, like water, bears up the lighter things, and lets the weighty sink —Sir Samuel Tuke
A slight variation by Francis Bacon: “Fame is like a river, that bears (modernized from ‘beareth’) on things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.”
- Fame to the ambitious, is like salt water to the thirsty, the more one gets the more he wants —Emil Ebers
- Glories, like glow-worms afar off, shine bright, but looked at near have neither heat nor light —John Webster
Slightly modernized from “Afar off shine bright, but look’d too near have neither heat nor light.”
- Glory is like a circle in the water, which never ceases to enlarge itself till by broad spreading it disperse to nought —William Shakespeare
Shakespeare used the old English ‘ceathes.’
- Her life had become akin to living inside a drum with the whole world beating on the outside —Barbara Seaman
In her biography of Susann, Lovely Me, this is how Seaman describes her subject’s life after she becomes a famous author.
- Like grass that autumn yellows your fame will wither away —Phyllis McGinley
- Like madness is the glory of this life —William Shakespeare
- Men’s fame is like their hair, which grows after they are dead, and with just as little use to them —George Villiers
- Our glories float between the earth and heaven like clouds which seem pavilions of the son —Edward Bulwer-Lytton
- Posterity is a switchboard to past, present and future —Karl Shapiro
- The public’s appetite for famous people is big as a mountain —Robert Motherwell, New York Times, January 22, 1986
- The way to fame is like the way to heaven, through much tribulation —Lawrence Sterne
Fame
in good odor In favor, in good repute; highly regarded, esteemed. Odor in this phrase means ‘repute, estimation.’ In good odor appeared in print as early as the mid-19th century. Also current is its opposite in bad or ill repute ‘out of favor, disreputable.’
When a person is in ill odour it is quite wonderful how weak the memories of his former friends become. (Charles Haddon Spur-geon, The Treasury of David, 1870)
in the limelight In the public eye; famous or infamous; featured; acclaimed; exalted. Before the discovery of electricity, theater spotlights burned a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gases in a lime (calcium oxide) cylinder. This produced an intense light which could be focused by lenses on a featured actor or actress, thus drawing the audience’s attention to that performer.
The town hardly gets its full share of the limelight because of the hero. (Aldous Huxley, Letters, 1934)
name in lights Fame, notoriety, recognition, acclaim. In the world of theater, the name of a well-known or featured actor or actress may be displayed in lights on the marquee over the theater’s entrance, thus drawing the public’s attention and, it is hoped, their patronage.
I couldn’t wait to get up there with the best of them and see my name up in lights—topping the bill at the Palladium. (Guardian, January 15, 1972)
In contemporary usage, this expression is sometimes employed figuratively, and is no longer strictly limited to performing artists.
a place in the sun A position of favor, prominence, or recognition; a nice, warm, comfortable spot; a share in the blessings of the earth. Theoretically every individual is entitled to the benefits symbolized by the sun—life, growth, prosperity. The expression has been traced back to Pascal’s Pensées, translated as follows:
This dog’s mine, says the poor child: this is my place, in the sun. (Bishop Kennett, Pascal’s Thoughts, 1727)
put on the map To establish the prominence of a person or place; to make well known or famous. This expression originally referred to an obscure community which, following the occurrence of a newsworthy event, was noted on maps. The common phrase now describes a happening that thrusts a person or object into the public limelight.
“The Fortune Hunter,” the play that put Winchell Smith on the dramatists’ map. (Munsey’s Magazine, June, 1916)
set the world on fire To achieve far-reaching success and renown; to make a name for one-self. This expression originated from the British set the Thames on fire, in which Thames is sometimes mistakenly thought to be derived homonymously from temse ‘sieve,’ through feeble allusion to a hard worker who uses a sieve with such celerity that the friction causes a fire. This theory is discounted by the fact that the French, Germans, and Italians all have similar sayings in regard to their own historic waterways, sayings which predate the English phrase. Thus, set the Thames on fire is undoubtedly the English version of the foreign expressions. When the phrase reached the United States, it was apparently Americanized to set the river on fire. As worldwide commerce and communication evolved, the phrase assumed its more cosmopolitan but somewhat less phenomenal form of set the world on fire. While the expression today usually implies the success of a vital and ambitious person, it is also applied negatively to the nonsuccess of a slow or lazy person. The term perhaps gained greater popularity through its incorporation into the lyrics of Bennie Benjamin’s song /Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire (1941).
fame - Also meant "reputation" in early contexts.
| Noun | 1. |  fame - the state or quality of being widely honored and acclaimedinfamy, opprobrium - a state of extreme dishonor; "a date which will live in infamy"- F.D.Roosevelt; "the name was a by-word of scorn and opprobrium throughout the city" |
| 2. |  fame - favorable public reputation reputation, repute - the state of being held in high esteem and honor infamy - evil fame or public reputation |
fame
shame, disgrace, obscurity, oblivion, disrepute, ignominy, dishonour, infamy
"If fame is to come only after death, I am in no hurry for it" [Martial Epigrams]
"In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes" [Andy Warhol exhibition catalogue]
"Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise"
"(That last infirmity of noble mind)"
"To scorn delights, and live laborious days" [John Milton Lycidas]
"Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things heavy and solid" [Francis Bacon Essays]
"Fame is a food that dead men eat -"
"I have no stomach for such meat" [Henry Austin Dobson Fame is a Food]
"Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial" [Pericles]
Margaret Mitchell, of "Gone with the Wind" fame → Margaret Mitchell, famosa por su novela "Lo que el viento se llevó"
fame and fortune → fama f y fortuna f
fame as sth
her fame as a children's author → sa renommée d'auteur de livres pour enfants
to rise to fame → devenir célèbre
to shoot to fame → connaître une célébrité fulgurante
to rise to fame as sth → se faire un nom en tant que qch
fame and fortune → la gloire et la fortune
J.K. Rowling, of "Harry Potter" fame → J.K. Rowling, le célèbre auteur d'"Harry Potter"
John Lennon, of Beatles fame → John Lennon, le chanteur du célèbre groupe les Beatles
fame → سُمْعَة proslulost berømmelse Ruhm φήμη fama kuuluisuus célébrité slava successo 名声 명예 roem berømmelse sława fama слава kändisskap ชื่อเสียง ün sự nổi tiếng 名声
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