fable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fable, also fabel and fabul,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French fable,^[4][5][6][7] from Latin fābula (“discourse, story, play, fable”),^[4][6][8] literally "that which is told",^[5][8] from for (“to speak, tell”).^[4][5][7][9] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace this to Proto-Indo-European *bhā- (“to speak”).^[5][7] The OED records the by-forms flabe and fauble, and compares Old Occitan faula.^[4] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the early 12th century, with senses from story and animal tale to falsehood.^[10] The verb is fablen, from fabler, from fābulor (“to talk”).^[6][4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fiction invented to deceive, a falsehood: about 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder,^[4][6][5] followed by the sense of a fictitious or imaginative story before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Latin fābula already ranged from talk and news to a story and a play.^[5][4] The sense of a short story with a moral, especially one with animals as characters, is recorded from 1340;^[4] Etymonline links it to the popularity of Aesop's tales,^[5] as does Weekley.^[11] After Latin fābula, the word could also mean a byword, someone everyone talks about (1535–1850),^[4][11] and, since 1678, the plot of a play or poem.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave "a feigned story intended to enforce some moral precept" first and "a fiction in general" second.^[12] The verb meant to speak or converse (1382–1570), then to tell fictitious tales, and after about 1525 to lie;^[4][13] the participle fabled, made up, is from 1606.^[6] Ayto takes fib to be probably short for fible-fable, a playful reduplication of fable.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a fiction invented to deceive; a falsehood.^[4][6][5]
• before 1325 – a fictitious or imaginative story.^[6] The OED's first record of this sense is before 1340, in Richard Rolle.^[4]
• 1340 – a short story conveying a moral, especially with animals as characters.^[4]
• c. 1380 – verb, to tell fictitious tales.^[4][6]
• before 1400 – a myth or legend.^[4]
• 1535 – a byword, a subject of common talk (archaic).^[4]
• 1553 – verb, to relate as in a fable; to invent.^[4]
• 1678 – the plot of a play or poem.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short story, often with animals as characters, that teaches a moral: the fable of the ant and the grasshopper.^[15][16][4]
2. A story of supernatural or marvellous events; a myth or legend, or such stories collectively.^[15][16][4]
3. A false or improbable account; a falsehood or fiction.^[15][16][4]
4. (archaic) The plot of a play or of an epic or dramatic poem.^[15][4]

Verb

1. To tell or write fictitious stories.^[16][4]
2. To tell of something as if it were true; to invent: It was fabled that a dragon guarded the hill.^[16][4]
3. (archaic) To tell lies.^[16][4][13]
4. (obsolete) To talk idly.^[16][4]

Word family

• fabler
• outfable
• fabulist

Related words

• fabulous
• fib
• affable
• ineffable
• confabulate
• fame
• fate
• infant
• nefarious
• confess
• profess
• ban

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster