fable

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French fable, from Latin fābula, from fārī (“to speak, say”) + -bula (“instrumental suffix”). See ban, and compare fabulous, fame. Doublet of fabula.

• enPR: fā′bəl, IPA^(key): /ˈfeɪbəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪbəl
• Hyphenation: fa‧ble

fable (plural fables)

1. A fictitious narrative intended to enforce some useful truth or precept, usually with animals, etc. as characters; an apologue. Prototypically, Aesop's Fables.

   Synonym: morality play

2. Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk.

   Synonym: legend

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 1 Timothy 4:7, column 1:

     But refuſe prophane and olde wiues fables, and exerciſe thy ſelfe rather vnto godlineſſe.

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Gardener’s Daughter; or, The Pictures”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 1008064829, page 19:

     […] we grew / The fable of the city where we dwelt.

3. Fiction; untruth; falsehood.
   • 1712 January 13 (Gregorian calendar)​, Joseph Addison; Richard Steele [et al.], “WEDNESDAY, January 2, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 264; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697, page 316:

     I say it would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away all which is the overplus of a great fortune by secret methods to other men.

4. The plot, story, or connected series of events forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem.
   • 1695, John Dryden, A Parallel betwixt Painting and Poetry:

     For the moral (as Bossu observes,) is the first business of the poet, as being the groundwork of his instruction. This being formed, he contrives such a design, or fable, as may be most suitable to the moral;

• have a fable for (may be etymologically unrelated)
• personal fable
• fabulist

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.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene ii], page 111, column 2:

     He Fables not, I heare the enemie: / Out ſome light Horſemen, and peruſe their Wings.

   • 1709, Mat[thew] Prior, “An Ode, Humbly Inscrib’d to the Queen”, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], OCLC 1103119849, stanza XVII, page 287:

     Vain now the Tales which fab’ling Poets tell, / That wav’ring Conqueſt ſtill deſires to rove; / In Marlbrô’s Camp the Goddeſs knows to dwell: / Long as the Hero’s Life remains her Love.

   • 1852, Matthew Arnold, Empedocles on Etna, Act II, in Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems, London: B. Fellowes, p. 50,

     He fables, yet speaks truth.

2. (transitive, archaic) To make up; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely; to recount in the form of a fable.

   Synonyms: make up, invent, feign, devise

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 288–292:

     […] erre not that ſo ſhall end / The ſtrife of Glorie: which we mean to win, / Or turn this Heav’n itſelf into the Hell / Thou fableſt […]

   • 1691, “Cassandra, or, Divination”, in Arthur Gorges, transl., The Wisdom of the Ancients, London, translation of [De Sapientia Veterum] by Francis Bacon, page 1:

     THE Poets Fable, That Apollo being enamoured of Caſſandra, was by her many ſhifts and cunning ſlights ſtill deluded in his Deſire […]

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 2: Nestor]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], OCLC 560090630, part I [Telemachia], page 24:

     Fabled by the daughters of memory. And yet it was in some way if not as memory fabled it. A phrase, then, of impatience, thud of Blake’s wings of excess.

• fabler

• fable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

• befal

From Old French fable, borrowed from Latin fabula.

• IPA^(key): /fabl/

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fable f (plural fables)

1. fable, story

   Synonyms: conte, histoire

• affabulation

• → Turkish: fabl

• “fable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From the noun fabel, ultimately from Latin fabula, from fā(rī) (“to speak, say”) + -bula (“instrumental suffix”).

• IPA^(key): /fɑːblə/

fable (imperative fabl or fable, present tense fabler, passive fables, simple past and past participle fabla or fablet)

1. to fantasize, dream

   fable om suksess

   dream about success

• fabel

• “fable” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From the noun fabel, ultimately from Latin fabula, from fā(rī) (“to speak, say”) + -bula (“instrumental suffix”).

• IPA^(key): /fɑːblə/

fable (imperative fabl, present tense fablar, simple past and past participle fabla)

1. to fantasize, dream

   fable om suksess

   dream about success

2. to make up (something)

• fabel

• “fable” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from Latin fabula.

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

• conte
• estoire

• Middle French: fable
  • French: fable
• → Middle Dutch: fabele
  • Dutch: fabel
• → Middle English: fable
  • English: fable
• → Middle High German: fabele
  • German: Fabel