FAME - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

FAMEAuthored

The Law Mind • 1001 words

Definition

In legal usage, *fame* carries a meaning rooted in classical common law that differs substantially from its modern conversational sense. The term denotes public report, common repute, or general reputation — the collective estimation in which a person or matter is held within a community. It appears most often in historical pleading, evidence, and criminal procedure, where it was used to indicate that a fact or a person's character was a matter of general knowledge or community belief rather than individual testimony.

In the law of evidence and pleading, fame served as a recognized mode of proof: certain facts could be established by showing they were matters of common fame or public repute, particularly in questions of pedigree, custom, boundary, and matters of public or general interest. A person's fame, in this sense, was the standing body of opinion that a community held about them.

In criminal procedure, the phrase *jeopardy of life or limb* was historically tied to the concept of being "put in jeopardy" once a person's *fama* — their public reputation or standing before a tribunal — had been formally placed at risk by a valid accusation and empaneled jury. The Latin form *fama* (cross-referenced by Burrill) carried the same freight in civil law traditions and canon law, where it bore on whether a person could be subjected to a criminal proceeding at all.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Fame today primarily means the state of being widely known and celebrated, typically for something positive — as in celebrity, renown, or public distinction.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Report or opinion generally diffused; renown; public estimation, either favorable or unfavorable. Webster's illustrates this with "the fame of Washington" — a broad, evaluative reputation.

The gap between common and legal meaning here is material. Modern usage narrows *fame* to celebrity and positive distinction. Legal usage retained the older, neutral sense of *public report* or *general repute* — which could be favorable, unfavorable, or merely collective. When a court or pleader invoked *fame*, the question was not whether a person was celebrated, but what the community generally believed or reported. A researcher encountering "fame" in a historical legal document should read it as *reputation* or *common report*, not renown.

Common Confusion

The Anderson entry for *fame* conflates it with *family* in the surviving text — almost certainly a typographic artifact or indexing error in the source dictionary, where the definition of *familia* was printed under *fame*. Researchers should not read Anderson's reference to "father, mother, and children" as a legal definition of *fame* itself; that definition belongs to the adjacent entry. This confusion underscores the need to cross-check Anderson against Burrill and primary sources when the definition appears anomalous.

*Fame* and *reputation* are near-synonyms in historical legal usage but are not always interchangeable. *Reputation* became the dominant term in modern defamation law, evidence rules, and character evidence doctrine. *Fame* retreated into archaic or formal usage. A researcher working in pre-twentieth-century materials will encounter *fame* where modern sources would say *reputation*; the shift is terminological, not conceptual.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers working in historical criminal procedure will encounter *fame* most critically in double jeopardy doctrine, where the phrase *in jeopardy of life and limb* developed alongside the concept of *fama* as the formal risking of a person's standing before the law. The canonical double jeopardy analysis in early American and English courts draws on this vocabulary.

In the law of evidence, *fame* and *common fame* appear in older treatises and cases as grounds for admitting proof of custom, boundary, pedigree, and matters of public concern — categories that later became codified in hearsay exceptions. A researcher tracing the history of the ancient documents or reputation hearsay exceptions should track *fame* as the ancestor concept.

The shift from *fame* to *reputation* in legal vocabulary accelerated in the nineteenth century. Defamation materials before roughly 1850 may use *fame* where later materials use *reputation*; this is particularly true in older form books, pleading manuals, and early American case law. Full-text corpus searches limited to *reputation* will miss earlier treatments if the researcher does not also search *fame* and *fama*.

In ecclesiastical and canon law sources, *fama* (the Latin form Burrill directs the reader to) operated as a distinct procedural concept, relevant to whether a cleric or parishioner could be subjected to formal accusation. Researchers in church court records or early colonial ecclesiastical proceedings should follow Burrill's cross-reference to *fama* rather than relying on the anglicized entry alone.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill offers no independent definition, directing the reader instead to *fama* — the Latin form used in civil and canon law sources. This is the more useful entry for researchers working with pre-modern or Roman-derived materials, and its omission from Anderson's entry represents a gap in that source's coverage.

Anderson's entry is corrupted by what appears to be a mislaid definition from *familia* or *family*, rendering it unreliable for the legal meaning of *fame* itself. The one useful fragment — "report or opinion generally diffused; repute, reputation; public estimation; name" — aligns with Webster's 1913 and with Burrill's implicit reference to *fama*, confirming the core meaning. Anderson's entry should be used with caution and verified against primary sources.

Neither dictionary addresses the procedural role of *fame* in double jeopardy doctrine or its function as a mode of proof in evidence law — significant omissions for researchers whose questions are doctrinal rather than definitional.

Jurisdictional Note

The legal use of *fame* as a formal term of art is most pronounced in English common law and its American descendants. Civil law jurisdictions operated with the Latin *fama* directly, particularly in ecclesiastical and inquisitorial procedure, and the concept carried distinct procedural weight in those systems. Researchers in Louisiana, Quebec, or other mixed-jurisdiction sources should follow the *fama* line rather than the anglicized *fame* entry.

FAMEmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

Report or opinion generally diffused; repute, reputation; public estimation; name. In its limited sense signifies father, mother, and children; in its ordinary acceptation, all the relatives who descend from a common root; in its most extensive scope, all the individuals who live together under the auThe most comprehensive definition is, a number of persons who live in one house and under one management or head.6 No specific number of persons is required; nor that they eat where they live, nor that they be employed in or about the house. Children, wife and children, blood relatives, or the members of the domestic circle; according to the connection." Includes children over age, if they have no home elsewhere. 8 Family arrangement. An arrangement between members of a family as to the disposition of their property. 1 See 1 Bish. Cr. L. § 1088; 2 Greenl. Ev. § 44; 38 Conn. 467; 132 Mass. 2; 74 Me. 153; 29 Minn. 193, 195. 2 L. familia, household: domestics: famulus, a servant. 3 Wilson v. Cochran, 31 Tex. 680 (1869); Roco v. Green, 50 id. 483 (1878). * Cheshire v. Burlington, 31 Conn. 329 (1863); 51 Mich. 494. * Galligar v. Payne, 34 La. An. 1058 (1882), Bermu1 [Bailey v. Westcott, 6 Phila. 527 (1868), Sharswood, dez, C. J.: 15 Rep. 464. J.; 2 Barb. 592; 2 Edw. Ch. 23. 2 The Santissima Trinidad, 7 Wheat. 339 (1822), Story, J. See 1 Whart. Ev. § 412; 30 F. R. 577; 18 Fla. 462; 97 Mass. 406; 62 Miss. 28; 91 Mo. 439; 14 Neb. 101; 44 N. Y. 172; 15 Wend. 602; 81 Va. 154; 3 Wis. 645. The Boston, 1 Sumn. 356 (1833). • Poor v. Hudson Ins. Co., 2 F. R. 438 (1880). Spencer v. Spencer, 11 Paige, 160 (1844), Walworth, Ch. See also Muir v. Howell, 37 N. J. L. 39 (1883), cases; Race v. Oldridge, 90 111. 252 (1878); 3 Woods, 494; 53 Iowa, 707; 56 id. 389; 125 Mass. 377; 128 id. 334; 137 id. 55. 8 Stilson v. Gibbs, 53 Mich. 280 (1884): Exemp. Law.

FAMEcrossref

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

See Fama.

FAMEn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Public report or rumor. The fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house. Gen. xlv. 16. Report or opinion generally diffused; renown; public estimation; celebrity, either favorable or unfavorable; as, the fame of Washington. I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited. Shak.

FAMEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To report widely or honorably. The field where thou art famed To have wrought such wonders. Milton. To make famous or renowned. Those Hesperian gardens famed of old. Milton.

famenoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Something said or reported; gossip, rumour. | One's reputation. | The state of being famous or well-known and spoken of, especially for something positive.

fameverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

to make (someone or something) famous

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