a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue: the fable of the tortoise and the hare; Aesop's fables.
2.
a story not founded on fact: This biography is largely a self-laudatory fable.
3.
a story about supernatural or extraordinary persons or incidents; legend: the fables of gods and heroes.
4.
legends or myths collectively: the heroes of Greek fable.
5.
an untruth; falsehood: This boast of a cure is a medical fable.
6.
the plot of an epic, a dramatic poem, or a play.
7.
idle talk: old wives' fables.
–verb (used without object)
8.
to tell or write fables.
9.
to speak falsely; lie: to fable about one's past.
–verb (used with object)
10.
to describe as if actually so; talk about as if true: She is fabled to be the natural daughter of a king.
[Origin: 1250–1300; ME fable, fabel, fabul < AF, OF < L fābula a story, tale, equiv. to fā(rī) to speak + -bula suffix of instrument]
c.1300, from O.Fr. fable, from L. fabula "story, play, fable," lit. "that which is told," from fari "speak, tell," from PIE base *bha- "speak" (see fame). Sense of "animal story" comes from Aesop. In modern folklore terms, defined as "a short, comic tale making a moral point about human nature, usually through animal characters behaving in human ways." Most trace to Greece or India.
Af"fa*ble\, a. [F. affable, L. affabilis, fr. affari to speak to; ad + fari to speak. See Fable.]1. Easy to be spoken to or addressed; receiving others kindly and conversing with them in a free and friendly manner; courteous; sociable. An affable and courteous gentleman. --Shak. His manners polite and affable. --Macaulay. 2. Gracious; mild; benign. A serene and affable countenance. --Tatler. Syn: Courteous; civil; complaisant; accessible; mild; benign; condescending.
Con*fab"u*late\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Confabulated; p. pr. & vb. n. Confabulating.] [L. confabulatus, p. p. of confabulary, to converse together; con- + fabulary to speak, fr. fabula. See Fable.] To talk familiarly together; to chat; to prattle. I shall not ask Jean Jaques Rousseau If birds confabulate or no. --Cowper.
Fa"ble\ (f[=a]"b'l), n. [F., fr. L. fabula, fr. fari to speak, say. See Ban, and cf. Fabulous, Fame.]1. A Feigned story or tale, intended to instruct or amuse; a fictitious narration intended to enforce some useful truth or precept; an apologue. See the Note under Apologue. Jotham's fable of the trees is the oldest extant. --Addison. 2. The plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem. The moral is the first business of the poet; this being formed, he contrives such a design or fable as may be most suitable to the moral. --Dryden. 3. Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk. "Old wives' fables. " --1 Tim. iv. 7. We grew The fable of the city where we dwelt. --Tennyson. 4. Fiction; untruth; falsehood. It would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away a great fortune by secret methods. --Addison.
applied in the New Testament to the traditions and speculations, "cunningly devised fables", of the Jews on religious questions (1 Tim. 1:4; 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:4; Titus 1:14; 2 Pet. 1:16). In such passages the word means anything false and unreal. But the word is used as almost equivalent to parable. Thus we have (1) the fable of Jotham, in which the trees are spoken of as choosing a king (Judg. 9:8-15); and (2) that of the cedars of Lebanon and the thistle as Jehoash's answer to Amaziah (2 Kings 14:9).
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