Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A medieval verse tale characterized by comic, ribald treatment of themes drawn from life.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In French lit., one of the metrical tales or diversions of the trouvères, belonging mostly to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Wiktionary
- n. The genre of short, farcical often coarse tales written in the North of France in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Fr. Lit.) One of the metrical tales of the Trouvères, or early poets of the north of France.
Etymologies
- Old French fabliau, diminutive of fable (Wiktionary)
- French, from Old North French, from Old French fablel, diminutive of fable, fable; see fable. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A fabliau is a brief tale, often little more than an anecdote, with a sharp sting at the end of it; frequently it was in rime; generally satiric in intent, it was full of frank gayety and of playful humor.”
“[FN#488] The fabliau is a favourite in the East; this is the third time it has occurred with minor modifications.”
“The second lady's trick in the fabliau is a very close parallel to the story in The Nights, vol.v. p. 96. [”
“The Canterbury Tales I've written so far which chronicle the pilgrims' homeward journey are all in different genres, varying from fables to fabliau, and from crime fiction to chick lit; and since Coscom Entertainment offered me a chance at publication with 'The Monk's Second Tale', this became the horror Canterbury Tale'.”
“A person whose penchant for ceding power to fellow plutocrats even less circumspect than himself might well, in this fabliau, have actually caused our present economic catastrophe.”
“The minstrels have a fabliau of a daw with borrowed feathers — why, this Oliver is The very bird, and, by St. Dunstan, if he lets his chattering tongue run on at my expense, I will so pluck him as never hawk plumed a partridge.”
“Only I wish we have not got King Stork, instead of King Log, like the fabliau [fable] that the Clerk of Saint”
“And even these are not allowed to pall upon the mental palate, being mingled with anecdotes and short tales, such as the Hermits (iii. 125), with biographical or literary episodes, acroamata, table-talk and analects where humorous Rabelaisian anecdote finds a place; in fact the fabliau or novella.”
“It is related in the “Disciplina Clericalis” of Alphonsus (A.D. 1106); the fabliau of La vieille qui seduisit la jeune fille; the Gesta Romanorum (thirteenth century) and the”
“Compare the following three texts — the previously-mentioned Passio sancti Pelagii by Hroswitha; Filius Getronis, a twelfth-century play of St. Nicholas from St. - Benoit-sur-Loire; and the tale of the snow child (a fabliau and several other retellings throughout the period). back”
A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fabliau’.
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dark and bright words of shine and fi...
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An Intermediate Course of Random Pala...
A third uncategorized list of words that catch my eye or fancy. Common or regional names and terms, names of foods and food preparation utensils, bird, plant and animal names, jargon words, and od...
lobscouse, skillygalee, skilly, skippaug, pauhagen, paughaden, poghaden, poggie, pog, skoodle, reef goose, reezle and 138 more...
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Professional Scrabble Lexicon (TWL)
A myriad of game-changing words every Scrabble addict must have in his arsenal.
Keep in mind that these are all tried-and-true feasibly playable words selected for their handiness, i.e...paragon, pignora, ganef, suttee, origan, ohia, aioli, abasement, lehr, mho, tallow, harelike and 842 more...
Tweets
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hernesheir (n): a short pithy story, commonly of the bawdy sort.
pl. fabliaux Jan 17, 2009