fabella

Forms

fābella f (genitive fābellae); first declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a diminutive, from Latin fābula (“story, tale”) + -ella.^[1][3][4] De Vaan places that noun with for (“to speak”), from Proto-Italic *fā-þlo- (“story”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *bheh₂- (“to speak”); cognate with Ancient Greek φημί (phēmí, “I say”).^[5] Priscian cites it as an example of the doubled ⟨l⟩ that diminutives in ⟨-la⟩ keep.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,^[6] who writes adfertur dē Sīlēnō fābella quaedam, “a little story is told about Silenus”.^[1][7]

Semantic evolution

It is a short story or anecdote,^[1][2] and Cicero says that philosophy has no room for such tales.^[2] In particular it is a fable: Phaedrus calls his stories fābellae and has Aesop tell one,^[2][7] Quintilian speaks of the fables of Aesop,^[4] and Horace of telling a story to a deaf ass.^[4] Phaedrus sets fābellae beside fābulae, plays,^[4] and Cicero uses it of a short play, saying that Terence's plays were thought to be written by Gaius Laelius.^[1][7] Seneca writes in fābellam excessī, “I have strayed into a story”.^[7][4] In Medieval Latin it kept the sense of a tale or anecdote,^[8] and it survives in favella.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a story and of a play.^[1][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a story told to a deaf ass.^[4][6]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it of his fables.^[2][7][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian speaks of the fables of Aesop.^[4][6]
• Medieval Latin – British writers use it of tales and anecdotes.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short story, tale, anecdote.^[1][2]
2. A fable.^[1][2][4]
3. A short play, drama.^[1][7][4]

Word family

• fābellor

Related words

• fābula
• for
• fāma

Usage notes

A separate fābella “little bean”, a diminutive of faba, appears in the Ruodlieb (middle of the 11th century);^[6] as a modern anatomical term it names a small bone behind the knee, after its bean-like shape.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org