Infamy, in common usage, is notoriety gained from a negative incident or reputation (as opposed to fame). The word stems from the Latin infamia, antonym of fama (fame).Infamy is a term of art in Roman Catholic Canon Law. The remainder of this article discusses infamy as defined by Canon Law. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913, infamy in the canonical sense is defined as the privation or lessening of one's good name as the result of the bad rating which he has, even among prudent m