fable

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“
It may also be said that a fable is nothing else than a false discourse shadowing forth the truth: for a fable is the image of truth.

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Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A usually short narrative making an edifying or cautionary point and often employing as characters animals that speak and act like humans.
  2. noun A story about legendary persons and exploits.
  3. noun A falsehood; a lie.
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Examples (50)

  • The key-note of the fable is the same as that in Goethe's celebrated ballad, “The Erl King”; namely, that those things which children imagine, are as real to them as the facts of the external world. —  The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Psyche lost it for having been too curious, and I am tempted to believe that this fable is a lesson for those who wish to analyze pleasure. —  Life, Letters, and Epicurean Philosophy of Ninon de L'Enclos, the Celebrated Beauty of the Seventeenth Century
  • And by the time the decidedly-partisan crowd of 72,922 figured out the fable was a farce, I half-expected to hear the "Fire Millen!" chants circulating again inside Ford Field. —  detnews.com - Commuting
  • If the fable were addressed generally to dictators and dictatorships at large then publication would be all right, but the fable does follow ... so completely the progress of the Russian Soviets and their two dictators, that it can apply only to Russia ....
  • Walt, I'm pointing out that the fable is about everyone: —  RealClimate
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

myth ·  superstition ·  romance ·  tale ·  anecdote ·  mythology ·  allegory ·  poem ·  ballad ·  metaphor ·  fantasy ·  parable

Used in the same contextWord Family

fable:   fables
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin fābula, from fārī, to speak; see bhā-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English fable, from Old French fable, fauble, French fable = Provencal fabla, faula = Spanish habla = Portuguese falla, speech, talk, language, modern fabula, a fable, = Italian favola = Dutch fabel = Middle High German fabele, fabel, favele, German fabel = Danish Swedish fabel, from Latin fabula, a narrative, account, story, especially a fictitious narrative, story, fable, from Latin fari, speak, = Greek φάναι, speak, declare, make known, from √ *φα, orig. give light, shine (cf. φαίνειν, √ *φαν, bring to light, make appear, give light, mid. appear), = Sanskrit √ bhā. From Latin fari, speak, beside fable, fabulate, confabulate, fabulous, fabulist, etc., come also English affable, effable, etc., fame, famous, infamous, etc., fate, fatal, etc., infant, infantry, etc.; and from Greek φάναι or φαίνειν come English phase, phantasm, phantom, fantasy, fancy, phenomenon, emphasis, etc.
  2. from Middle English fablen, from Old French fabler, faubler, flaber = Provencal favelar = Spanish hablar, speak, talk, etc., = Portuguese fallar, speak, talk, tell, restored Spanish Portuguese fabular, fable, = Italian favolare (= German fabeln = Danish fable), from Latin fabulare, talk, speak, converse, from fabula, a narrative, account, subject of common talk: see fable, n.
 

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/ˈfeɪbl/
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