Welcome, Philip!

I can't speak for anyone else, but notoriety is not always negative to me, but interestingly, notorious always is. Surely it originally connoted negativity, but it has changed, as you say. I think NPR's usage is less positive than you have inferred, and is more neutral in meaning, as "attention".

I don't think it would be possible to list all the words to which this has happened because there are just too many! One in particular leaps to mind, and that is "decimate" and all its forms. The original meaning was destruction of every tenth, which isn't too bad, but nowadays people use it to mean completely destroyed. Oh well! :0)

Last edited by twosleepy; 12/09/09 04:16 AM. Reason: brainfart