15 minutes of fame en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
First appears c. 1968, although a use in French appears as early as 1821 in Histoire de l'Assemblée constituante by Charles Lacretelle. Often misattributed to Andy Warhol, in a catalogue of an exhibition of his art in Stockholm: “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
Meanings
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(idiomatic, plural, plural-only) A very short time in the spotlight or brief flurry with fame, after which the person or subject involved is quickly forgotten.
[…] Paula [Jones] was, even to her lawyers, a loose cannon—as prepared to risk her marriage and her well-being to get the president to confess his original sin as she was intent on making big money and getting her fifteen minutes of fame.
2007, Nigel Hamilton, Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency, New York: PublicAffairs, →ISBN, page 274:In the next chapter, we'll meet twenty-five hopefuls who have already begun to experience their fifteen minutes of fame as a result of exposure on YouTube.
2008, Frederick Levy, 15 Minutes of Fame: Becoming A Star In The YouTube Revolution, Alpha Books, →ISBN:After just a month on television, this ordinary chap from Catford, south London, was an overnight superstar, ready to milk his 15 minutes of fame.
2016 January 31, Anna Williamson, “The flip side of instant fame”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 23 Mar 2016:By the time we went to Central Park, someone walking in the park said they had just seen us on Fox that morning. It was like being a rock star with a whole fifteen minutes of fame. So it was fun for a time.
2014, Kip Harding, Mona Lisa Harding, chapter 19, in The Brainy Bunch […] , Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 188:One day in early January 1970, Michael James Brody Jr. stepped off a Pan Am jet at John F. Kennedy Airport and into what would be one of the new decade’s shortest, strangest 15 minutes of fame.
2022 April 27, Jennifer Schuessler, “An Heir, a $25 Million Giveaway and 30,000 Unopened Letters”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2022:
Deriveds
15 minutes · 15 megabytes of fame · fifteen minutes · 15 minutes of shame
Relateds
nine-day wonder · one-hit wonder · fifteen minutes of fame · legend in one's own lunchtime
Synonyms
15 minutes · moment in the sun · fifteen minutes
Translations (24)
fr quart d'heure de gloire (fifteen minutes of fame) · eo dek kvin minutoj da gloro (fifteen minutes of fame) · de fünfzehn Minuten Ruhm (fifteen minutes of fame) · cmn 大出風頭 /大出风头 (fifteen minutes of fame) · fr heure de gloire (fifteen minutes of fame) · es cinco minutos de fama (fifteen minutes of fame) · af vyftien minute van roem (fifteen minutes of fame) · fi viisitoista minuuttia kuuluisuutta (fifteen minutes of fame) · cmn 短暫出名 /短暂出名 (fifteen minutes of fame) · mr पंधरा मिनिटे प्रसिद्धी (fifteen minutes of fame) · ro cincisprezece minute de faimă (fifteen minutes of fame) · hu tizenöt perc hírnév (fifteen minutes of fame) · pl pięć minut (fifteen minutes of fame) · be пятнаццаць хвілін славы (fifteen minutes of fame) · no femten minutters berømmelse (fifteen minutes of fame) · sq pesëmbëdhjetë minuta famë (fifteen minutes of fame) · el δεκαπέντε λεπτά δημοσιότητας (fifteen minutes of fame) · ru пятна́дцать мину́т сла́вы (fifteen minutes of fame) · tr sabunköpüğü (fifteen minutes of fame) · he חמש עשרה דקות של תהילה (fifteen minutes of fame) · sv femton minuter i rampljuset (fifteen minutes of fame) · es quince minutos de fama (fifteen minutes of fame) · pt quinze minutos de fama (fifteen minutes of fame) · sv femton minuter av berömmelse (fifteen minutes of fame)