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Fabling

 - 3 dictionary results

fa⋅ble

  [fey-buhl] noun, verb, -bled, -bling.
Use Fabling in a Sentence
–noun
1. 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

Related forms:
fabler, noun

Synonyms:
1. See legend.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Fabling
fa·ble   (fā'bəl)   
n.  

  1. A usually short narrative making an edifying or cautionary point and often employing as characters animals that speak and act like humans.

  2. A story about legendary persons and exploits.

  3. A falsehood; a lie.

v.   fa·bled, fa·bling, fa·bles

v.   tr.
To recount as if true.
v.   intr. Archaic
To compose fables.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin fābula, from fārī, to speak; see bhā-2 in Indo-European roots.]
fa'bler n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

fable 
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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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