Etymologically
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fabella

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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

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