Notoriousness is from notorious + -ness, from Medieval Latin notorius ('well-known'), from Latin notus ('known'), from noscere ('to know'). Important recorded forms include notorius (Latin) and noscere (Latin). Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The modern sense remains close to that composition, with the parts narrowing into a single lexical item. In current use it covers the state of being notorious; ill fame. The wider family includes related words such as notorious, notoriety, and note.