publicity

English

Etymology

From French publicité, From Medieval Latin pūblicitātem, accusative singular of pūblicitās, from Latin pūblicus (“public, general”).

Morphologically public +‎ -ity

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪsɪti

Noun

publicity (usually uncountable, plural publicities)

1. Advertising or other activity designed to rouse public interest in something.
   • 1979 August 11, “Man Found Not Guilty”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 4, page 2:

     A gay man accused of disorderly conduct for posting publicity for a Boston gay event was found not guilty in Cambridge District Court on July 22.

2. Public interest attracted in this way.
   • 1963 February, “Nobody runs this railway, mate”, in Modern Railways, page 73:

     Any publicity, runs the axiom, is good publicity.

3. The condition of being the object of public attention.
4. The quality of being public, not private.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     Amelia's gentle eyes, too, had been fixed anxiously on the pair, whose conduct had so chafed the jealous General; but when Rebecca entered her box, she flew to her friend with an affectionate rapture which showed itself, in spite of the publicity of the place; for she embraced her dearest friend in the presence of the whole house, at least in full view of the General's glass, now brought to bear upon the Osborne party.

Derived terms

• all publicity is good publicity
• no such thing as bad publicity
• publicity-hound
• publicity hound
• publicity stunt
• right of publicity
• there is no such thing as bad publicity

 

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to publicity

• public
• publicist
• publicness

Translations

advertising or other activity designed to rouse public interest in something

• Armenian: գովազդ (hy) (govazd)
• Bulgarian: реклама (bg) f (reklama)
• Catalan: publicitat (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 宣傳／宣传 (zh) (xuānchuán)

• Dutch: publiciteit (nl)
• Esperanto: reklamo
• French: publicité (fr) f
• German: Werbung (de) f
• Greek: διαφήμιση (el) f (diafímisi)
• Hindi: प्रचार (hi) (pracār)
• Irish: bolscaireacht (ga) f
• Italian: pubblicità (it)
• Japanese: 宣伝 (ja) (せんでん, senden), 広報 (ja) (こうほう, kōhō)
• Macedonian: рекла́ма f (rekláma)
• Malay: publisiti, pengiklanan, seranta
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: publisitet m

  Nynorsk: publisitet m

• Portuguese: publicidade (pt) f
• Romanian: publicitate (ro) f
• Russian: рекла́ма (ru) f (rekláma), пабли́сити (ru) n (pablísiti)
• Spanish: publicidad (es) f
• Swedish: publicitet (sv) c

public interest attracted in this way

• Catalan: publicitat (ca) f
• Dutch: publiciteit (nl)
• Greek: δημοσιότητα (el) f (dimosiótita)
• Malay: publisiti
• Romanian: publicitate (ro) f
• Russian: сла́ва (ru) f (sláva), изве́стность (ru) f (izvéstnostʹ)

the condition of being the object of public attention

• Armenian: հրապարակայնություն (hy) (hraparakaynutʻyun)
• Bulgarian: публичност (bg) f (publičnost), гласност (bg) f (glasnost)
• Greek: δημοσιότητα (el) f (dimosiótita)
• Malay: publisiti
• Russian: гла́сность (ru) f (glásnostʹ), пабли́сити (ru) n (pablísiti)