Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A story or legend forming part of an oral tradition.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A folk-story.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun a tale circulated by word of mouth among the common folk, especially one forming part of the tradition of a culture.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
tale orstory that is part of theoral tradition of a people or a place
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a tale circulated by word of mouth among the common folk
- noun a tale circulated by word of mouth among the common folk
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word folktale.
Examples
-
Not my grandmother, who knew every folktale from the old countrymost of them gruesome; children devoured by wolves and beheaded by witchesbut never spoke about the war in my hearing.
-
Silver (2005) tells us that animal lovers in folktale serve a variety of functions, but one of the most important may be to instruct women to love “beastly” husbands in spite of their frightening or boorish qualities, possibly with the end of civilizing them, as in “Beauty and the Beast.”
-
As we speak we are still in the midst of a kind of folktale maelstrom, so you’ll forgive me if my initial sideways glance at “Letters from Rapunzel,” appeared to produce just more of the same.
Review of the Day: Letters from Rapunzel fusenumber8 2007
-
It stopped being as “folktale-ish” and just started feeling long.
Book Review: The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart | Fandomania 2010
-
Like many of the coming rush of fairytale films, the movie takes the format of an ancient folktale, set in a village in a deep forest menaced by a predatory wolf, and gives it a contemporary feel.
Hollywood wants Red Riding Hood and Snow White to weave a box office spell 2011
-
The Moses story was also inspiration for my folktale Big Jabe HarperCollins, 2000.
Eliza’s Freedom Road Jerdine Nolen 2011
-
There are a variety of stories based on this delightful folktale.
Eliza’s Freedom Road Jerdine Nolen 2011
-
I wanted more of the supernatural aspect, to have it be more folktale and less in the company of other humans.
Book Review: The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart | Fandomania 2010
-
In a hokey “resonant Indian folktale” voice, she added, “For many moons, it has provided a way for unattached men and women of Grundy to find the person they plan on shacking up with for the season.”
How to Flirt with A Naked Werewolf Molly Harper 2011
-
Examples: the folktale “Old Dry Frye” which is both very funny and very morbid; the tale called “Sitting Up With the Dead” or some variant of that title, which is really an extended joke.
More of My Favorite Books About the South « One-Minute Book Reviews 2009
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.