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Fable Definition

fable

Contents

English

Wikipedia has an article on: Fable

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French fable, from Latin fabula, from fari (“to speak, say”). See Ban, and compare fabulous, fame.

Pronunciation

Noun

fable (plural fables)

  1. A fictitious narration intended to enforce some useful truth or precept, usually with animals, birds etc as characters; an apologue. Prototypically, Aesop's Fables.
  2. Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk.
    • 1 Timothy 4:7,
      Old wives' fables.
    • Alfred Tennyson,
      We grew The fable of the city where we dwelt.
  3. Fiction; untruth; falsehood.
    • Joseph Addison,
      It would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away a great fortune by secret methods.

Synonyms

Verb

fable (third-person singular simple present fables, present participle fabling, simple past and past participle fabled)

  1. (intransitive, archaic) To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction ; to write or utter what is not true.
    • Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI, IV-ii:
      He Fables not.
    • Matthew Prior:
      Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell.
    • Matthew Arnold:
      He fables, yet speaks truth.
  2. (transitive, archaic) To feign; to invent; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely.
    • John Milton:
      The hell thou fablest.

Translations

compose fables
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
  • Danish: fable (da)
  • Finnish: sepittää (fi) (satuja)
  • German: fabulieren (de)
  • Hungarian: mesél (hu)
  • Macedonian: фабулира (mk) (fabulíra)
tell of falsely
  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
  • Danish: fabulere (da)

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

French

Etymology

Latin fabula

Pronunciation

Noun

fable f. (plural fables)

  1. fable, story

Synonyms

Old French

Etymology

Latin fabula

Noun

fable f. (oblique plural fables, nominative singular fable, nominative plural fables)

  1. fable, story
    • circa 1250, Rutebeuf, Ci encoumence la lections d'ypocrisie et d'umilité:
      Ne vos wel faire longue fable
      I don't want to tell you a long story

Synonyms

 

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