fabledom

English

Etymology

fable +‎ -dom

Noun

fabledom (uncountable)

1. All fables, collectively, and the worlds depicted in them.
   • 1898, Contemporary Club Papers:

     The animals of all fabledom are absessed by human souls. They think man-thoughts, have man-motives, and do man-deeds.

   • 1910, The School World:

     It begins with a paragraph in the now familiar style: "Incola sum Britanniae," and so forth; but almost immediately Britain is left for fabledom, and we have the Wolf and the Lamb, then the names of Latin poets, then Roman camps, another fable, and so on.

   • 1958, The Bulletin of the National Association of Secondary School Principals:

     American readers will meet many fabulous people, including the bold and resourceful Petit Jean, a probable ancestor of our own Paul Bunyon. Here are all the best ingredients of fabledom, the crafty Sultan who almost — but not quite — outwits Petit Jean; the wicked ...

   • 1999, Wendy Beckett, Patricia Wright, Sister Wendy's one thousand masterpieces:

     Yet Both has not entirely romanticized Italy into fabledom. He clearly has no time for mythological adventures: no Pan or Narcissus peeks out of the undergrowth.

2. Cultural beliefs that are not grounded in fact.
   • 1894, The Tablet - Volume 84, page 5:

     In a time of violent religious excitement the transference was easy from fabledom, Teutonic barbarism, &c., to Christian convents.

   • 197?, Marketing Memos:

     For the persnickety, spell the month J-u-l-r-y, but the rule about "r" months and oysters has happily passed into fabledom and can be ignored.

   • 1978, Canadian Tax Foundation, Report of Proceedings of the ... Annual Tax Conference Convened by the Canadian Tax Foundation:

     Certainly, it would be nice to get it perfect the first time, but that's really the stuff of fabledom.

3. (qualified by the name of a subculture) The legends of a particular subculture.
   • 1983, Dave Marsh, John Swenson, The new Rolling stone record guide, page 452:

     That the Seeds were able to parlay their distinctly limited talents as writers, singers and musicians into a rather long and successful career is one of the more miraculous stories in rock fabledom.