fabel

See also: Fabel

Danish

Etymology

From Latin fābula (“tale”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /faːbəl/, [ˈfæːˀb̥əl], [ˈfæːˀb̥l̩]

Noun

fabel c (singular definite fablen or fabelen, plural indefinite fabler)

1. fable

Inflection

Declension of fabel

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	fabel	fablen fabelen	fabler	fablerne
genitive	fabels	fablens fabelens	fablers	fablernes

Derived terms

• dyrefabel c
• fabelagtig (adjective)
• fabeldyr n
• fabelvæsen n
• fable (verb)

See also

• fabel on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Further reading

• “fabel” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “fabel” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch fabele, from Old French fable, from Latin fābula.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaː.bəl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fa‧bel
• Rhymes: -aːbəl

Noun

fabel f (plural fabelen or fabels, diminutive fabeltje n)

1. a legend, a fable
2. something untrue, a fable, a myth

Derived terms

• fabelachtig
• fabeldier
• fabelkunde
• fabelleer
• fabelwezen

Related terms

• fabuleren
• fabuleus

Descendants

• Afrikaans: fabel
• → Indonesian: fabel
• → Papiamentu: fabel (dated)
• → West Frisian: fabel

Further reading

• “fabel” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie. [the official spelling word list for the Dutch language]

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch fabel (“fable”), from Old French fable, from Latin fābula.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfabəl]
• Hyphenation: fa‧bêl

Noun

fabêl (plural fabel-fabel)

1. (literature) fable, a fictitious narrative intended to enforce some useful truth or precept, usually with animals, etc. as characters

Further reading

• “fabel”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fābula (“conversation, narrative, tale, fable; play”), literally “something spoken or told”, formed from the verbal stem fā- (“speak, say”) of for (“to speak, say”) and -bula (“instrument- or result-noun suffix”). The verbal element is from Proto-Italic *fāōr (“to speak”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂ti (“to speak”), an athematic present formed from the root *bʰeh₂- (“to speak, say”); the suffix continues *-dʰlom (“instrument- or result-noun suffix”).

The broad senses of Latin fābula included conversation, report, narrative, story and dramatic work, helping to account for the Norwegian senses “fable”, “story” and “plot”. Doublet of fabula (“fable; narrated sequence of events”).

Compare Norwegian Nynorsk fabel, Danish fabel, Swedish fabel, German Fabel, Dutch fabel, English fable, French fable, Spanish fábula, Portuguese fábula, Italian favola, Polish fabuła and Romanian fabulă (“fable, tale”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɑː.bəl/, [ˈfɑː.bl̩]
• Rhymes: -ɑːbəl
• Hyphenation: fa‧bel

Noun

fabel m (definite singular fabelen, indefinite plural fabler, definite plural fablene)

1. (literature) a short didactic or moral story, in verse or prose, often featuring animals as personifications of human characteristics and usually ending with a moral; a fable
   • 2008, Atle Sperre Hermansen, Vikariatet:

     fabelen om hauken og nattergalen

     the fable of the hawk and the nightingale

   • 2011, Tor Åge Bringsværd, Slipp håndtaket når du vrir:

     vi [har] valgt å se teksten som en slags moralsk fabel forkledd som pikaresk roman

     we [have] chosen to regard the text as a kind of moral fable disguised as a picaresque novel

2. a story, tale or narrative
   • 1919, Nils Collett Vogt, Digte i utvalg, page 83:

     saa melder sagnets fabel

     thus speaks the tale of legend

   1. especially an untrue, implausible or unreasonable account; a fabrication, myth or tall tale

      Synonym: skrøne

      • 1932, Tidens Tegn, number 29, page 1, column 7:

        når man begynner å gjøre bibelens sannheter til fabler, så rakner snart det hele

        when one begins turning the truths of the Bible into fables, the whole thing soon unravels

      • 1881, Kristian Elster, chapter VI, in Farlige Folk:

        han serverede med uforlignelig Sikkerhed de vildeste Fabler

        he told the wildest tales with incomparable confidence

      • 1882, Henrik Ibsen, En folkefiende, page 51:

        der må rygges ved den fabelen om de styrendes ufejlbarhed

        that myth about the infallibility of those in power must be challenged

      • 2015 October 12, Nationen, pages 18–19:

        de tusentalls våte fiskeskrønene som fortelles hvert år, og utallige fablene om enorme – eller tvert om elendige bær- og soppforekomster

        the thousands of tall fishing tales told every year, and the countless stories about enormous—or, conversely, dreadful—supplies of berries and mushrooms

      • 2025, Christine Amadou, Bysantinerne, page 16:

        i antikken betydde oikoumene den bebodde verden, det vil si alt som ikke var fablenes, monstrenes og barbarenes domene

        in antiquity, oikoumene meant the inhabited world, that is, everything outside the domain of fables, monsters and barbarians

3. (literature) the plot or course of events in a narrative text; the manner in which its episodes are connected

   Synonym: plott

   • 1932, Alv G. Schjelderup, Samtiden, page 49:

     [fremstilt under en annen synsvinkel] vilde romanens fabel vært en tragedie, som vilde talt til oss og endog virket berikende

     [presented from another point of view], the novel's plot would have been a tragedy that would have spoken to us and even had an enriching effect

   • 2009, Øyvind Berg, Poesi og lærepenger:

     han var ennå ikke villig til å gi avkall på fabelen, eller plottet, som et dramaturgisk strukturerende element

     he was not yet willing to relinquish the storyline, or plot, as a dramaturgically structuring element

Derived terms

• dyrefabel (“animal fable”)
• fabelaktig (“fabulous”)
• fabeldyr (“mythical creature”)
• fabelvesen (“mythical being”)
• fable (“to fantasize, talk nonsense”)

Anagrams

• befal

References

• “fabel” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “fabel” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages, Leiden: Brill, p. 231.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin fabula.

Noun

fabel m (definite singular fabelen, indefinite plural fablar, definite plural fablane)

1. a fable

Derived terms

• fabelaktig

References

• “fabel” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Noun

fabel c

1. a fable

Declension

Declension of fabel

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	fabel	fabels
	definite	fabeln	fabelns
plural	indefinite	fabler	fablers
	definite	fablerna	fablernas

References

• “fabel”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “fabel”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “fabel”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)