fable
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Middle English, from Old French fable, from Latin fabula, from fari (“to speak, say”). See Ban, and compare fabulous, fame.
Pronunciation [edit]
Noun [edit]
fable (plural fables)
- A fictitious narration intended to enforce some useful truth or precept, usually with animals, birds etc as characters; an apologue. Prototypically, Aesop's Fables.
- 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.
- 1 Timothy 4:7,
- Fiction; untruth; falsehood.
- Joseph Addison,
- It would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away a great fortune by secret methods.
- Joseph Addison,
Synonyms [edit]
- (fiction to enforce a useful precept): morality play
- (story to excite wonder): legend
- (falsehood):
Translations [edit]
fictitious narration to enforce some useful truth or precept
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story told to excite wonder
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Verb [edit]
fable (third-person singular simple present fables, present participle fabling, simple past and past participle fabled)
- (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.
- Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI, IV-ii:
- (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.
- John Milton:
Translations [edit]
compose fables
tell of falsely
References [edit]
- fable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Latin fabula
Pronunciation [edit]
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Audio (file)
Noun [edit]
fable f (plural fables)
Synonyms [edit]
Old French [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Latin fabula
Noun [edit]
fable f (oblique plural fables, nominative singular fable, nominative plural fables)
- 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
- Ne vos wel faire longue fable
- circa 1250, Rutebeuf, Ci encoumence la lections d'ypocrisie et d'umilité:
Synonyms [edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English verbs
- English archaic terms
- Webster 1913
- French terms derived from Latin
- French nouns
- French feminine nouns
- French countable nouns
- Old French terms derived from Latin
- Old French nouns
- Old French feminine nouns
