mid-14c., reputacioun, "credit, good reputation, esteem;" late 14c. in the general sense of "opinion, estimation," good or bad; from Old French reputation, reputacion, and directly from Latin reputationem (nominative reputatio) "a reckoning, consideration, a thinking over," noun of action from past-participle stem of reputare "reflect upon, reckon, count over."
This is from re-, here perhaps "repeatedly" (see re-), + putare "to judge, suppose, believe, suspect," originally "to clean, trim, prune" (from PIE root *pau- (2) "to cut, strike, stamp").
1705 as abbreviation of reputation (n.); upon rep "I swear it" was a common 18c. slang asseveration. As a shortening of repetition (n.) it is recorded from 1864, originally school slang; as a shortening of representative (n.), especially (but not originally) "sales representative," it is attested from 1896. As an abbreviation of repertory (company) it is recorded from 1925.
also demimonde, "women of equivocal reputation and standing in society," 1855, from French demi-monde "so-so society," literally "half-world," from demi- "half" + monde, from Latin mundus "world" (see mundane).
Popularized by its use as title of a comedy by Alexandre Dumas fils (1824-1895). Dumas' Demi-Monde "is the link between good and bad society ... the world of compromised women, a social limbo, the inmates of which ... are perpetually struggling to emerge into the paradise of honest and respectable ladies" ["Fraser's Magazine," 1855]. Thus not properly used of courtesans, etc.
Compare 18th-century English demi-rep (1749, the second element short for reputation), defined as "a woman that intrigues with every man she likes, under the name and appearance of virtue ... in short, whom every body knows to be what no body calls her" [Fielding].
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cut, strike, stamp."
It forms all or part of: account; amputate; amputation; anapest; berate; compute; count (v.); depute; deputy; dispute; impute; pave; pavement; pit (n.1) "hole, cavity;" putative; rate (v.1) "to scold;" reputation; repute.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin pavire "to beat, ram, tread down," putare "to prune;" Greek paiein "to strike;" Lithuanian pjauti "to cut," pjūklas "saw."
c. 1300, renoun, "fame or glory attaching to a person, place, etc.; reputation," especially good reputation, "state of having an exalted name," from Anglo-French renoun, Old French renon "renown, fame, reputation," from renomer "make famous," from re-, here perhaps "repeatedly" (see re-) + nomer "to name," from Latin nominare "to name" (see nominate).
Medieval Latin had renominare "to make famous;" Old French renominer seems to have meant "name over, repeat, rename." The Middle English verb reknouen, renouen "make known, acknowledge" has been assimilated to the noun via renowned. In old German university slang, a reknowner (German renommist) was "a boaster, a swaggerer."