sublebrity

• sub-lebrity

Blend of sub- (“below; secondary, subsidiary”, prefix) +‎ celebrity.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sʌbˈlɛ.bɹɪ.ti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sʌbˈlɛ.bɹə.ti/, [-ɾi]

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (General American):

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• Hyphenation: sub‧lebr‧i‧ty

sublebrity (plural sublebrities)

1. (derogatory, informal) Synonym of minor celebrity (“a celebrity of little importance or significance; someone famous for being famous”).

   Synonyms: C-lister, demicelebrity, minicelebrity

   Coordinate terms: microcelebrity, noncelebrity, pseudocelebrity, semicelebrity, subcelebrity

   • 1998 May, James Sullivan, “Maggot Brains: The Bizarre Premiere of Kurt and Courtney”, in Michael Hirschorn, editor, Spin, volume 14, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Vibe/Spin Ventures, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 78, column 2:

     After the screening, a large crowd filled the street outside the theater, playing spot-the-sublebrity with some of the film's prime characters, including Nirvana photographer Alice Wheeler and [Courtney] Love's estranged (and notoriously unhinged) father, Hank Harrison, who appears in the movie hawking his self-published anti-Courtney screed, Who Killed Kurt Cobain?

   • 2011, Joan Collins, “On Fame: I’m Going to Live for Ever, or at Least Fifteen Minutes”, in The World according to Joan, London: Constable & Robinson, →ISBN, page 25:

     Of course, the ultimate celebrity of all time is still Marilyn Monroe. In the nearly fifty years since her death, hundreds of books have been written about her and her classic beauty still looks modern. I wonder how many of today's sub-lebrities will ever achieve that degree of long-term adulation?

   • 2012, Kate Bornstein, “Prologue: The Kiss of Death”, in A Queer and Pleasant Danger: A Memoir, Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, →ISBN:

     It's been fourteen years of some serious chasing after stardom and just as seriously running away from it, but I haven't become a star. I might be on my way, though. As I write this book, I have secured myself a place as a sublebrity in the pantheon of America's queer and postmodern subcultures. That makes me happy.

   • 2018 January 15, Marina Hyde, “Britain’s ghastliest financial sublebrities – a who’s who”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 9 September 2024:

     But I could definitely consider a Shower List – a list of the biggest shower of horrors in any field at any given moment. First up, then: Britain's Ghastliest Financial Sublebrities. The idea is tangentially suggested – but of course – by the FT [Financial Times]'s exposé of the Presidents Club, a men-only charity party at which City chaps apparently seem to trade donations to the sick children of Great Ormond Street Hospital for the chance to sexually harass the female help.

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