Theresa May, the home secretary, was “once famously photographed in one of the Fawcett Society’s ‘This is what a feminist looks like’ T-shirts”, according to the Guardian earlier this week. And for those of us who have no recollection of this incident, “famous” or otherwise, there was a photograph to prove it.

I’m a national newspaper journalist who works on the big news stories every day of my working life. I’m really interested in politics and, at least in the days when she acknowledged that the Tories were the “nasty party”, quite liked May. So if I don’t remember her wearing that T-shirt (the kitten heels are quite a different matter), I suspect there must be quite a few other people who don’t either. So what, exactly, is “famously” doing in that sentence?

I think that when writers use this word they usually mean one of two things.

I know everyone knows this, but I can’t think of an original way to start so I am going to say it anyway.

An example from this newspaper:

“Harold Macmillan, asked what the biggest challenge is for any leader, famously replied: ‘Events, my dear boy, events.’ ”

If we all already know this, why tell us he “famously” said it?

You don’t know this? I do. That shows I am clever and know lots of stuff you don’t.

Another Guardian example:

“Reich famously declined to continue in academia, preferring to support himself via a series of blue-collar jobs.”

This is even worse, calculated to annoy the reader, if not to make them feel inferior to the writer.

Journalists love “famously”. It makes around 500 appearances a year in Britain’s national newspapers, often, though not always, in stories about Wayne Rooney. Here’s a selection, all from yesterday’s papers (my italics):

“Bobby Charlton, 76, famously lost 10lb (4.6kg) in weight in just an hour of England’s game with Pele’s Brazil at the Mexico 1970 World Cup.” (Daily Star)

“Bobby Charlton famously lost over 10lb in weight in just an hour of England’s classic encounter with Pele’s Brazil at the Mexico 1970 World Cup.” (Daily Express)

“Eriksson famously urged England fans and media at his farewell press conference in 2006 not to ‘kill’ Rooney because the country needed him.” (Daily Mail)

“Keira Knightley famously once declared ‘I don’t have t**s’ … (Daily Mail)

(Not that famously, perhaps, if we aren’t deemed grownup enough to be told what she actually said.)

“David Moyes famously told him [Rooney] at the start of last season that he had lost his aggressive edge.” (Independent)

“The Netherlands midfielder [Wesley Sneijder] was part of the side that lost 1-0 to Spain in a famously ill-tempered World Cup final in South Africa in 2010.” (Mirror)

“But yesterday the court was told the actor [Leroy Harris], who famouslyfeatured in the cat-killing scene in the hit RTE crime series … ” (Mirror)

“The fishmonger who famously joked with Queen Elizabeth revealed yesterday he is €85,000 in the red and carped: ‘Tourists don’t buy fish.’ ” (The Sun)

“They’ve [Algeria] qualified for the World Cup four times – and in 1982famously beat eventual winners West Germany 2-1.” (The Sun)

“Famously, Newell’s, Messi’s senior club in Rosario, eventually rejected paying for the expensive corrective treatment.” (Daily Telegraph)

That’s quite enough fame for one day.

My view is that as “famously” serves no useful purpose, it’s best to leave it out. (Or, for those of us whose job involves editing other people’s copy, remove it.)

The same applies to “famous”. If something or someone is famous, we already know, thank you. And if they aren’t famous, well, they aren’t famous, so why would you say they are?