▪ I. fable, n.
(ˈfeɪb(ə)l)
Forms: 4, 6 fabel(l, 4–5 fabil(l, fabul(le, 4– fable.
[a. F. fable (OF. also flabe, fauble, Pr. faula) ad. L. fābula discourse, narrative, story, dramatic composition, the plot of a play, a fable, f. fārī to speak: see fate.]
1. a. A fictitious narrative or statement; a story not founded on fact.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 23857 (Cott.), Bot war a ribaude us tald, of a fantime or of a fabel. a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxxiii. 11, I sall lere ȝow noght þe fabils of poetis, na the storis of tyraunts. 1483 Caxton Cato G vj b, The poetes..sayen and rehercen many fables and thynges meruayllous. 1577 Rhodes Bk. Nurture in Babees Bk. 64 Keepe them [children] from reading of fayned fables..and wanton stories. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. (Bohn) III. 118 Those lofty fables and romances, which recount in solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood. 1700 Dryden tr. Ovid's Met. xii. in Fables 441 It seems a Fable, tho' the Fact I saw. 1726 De Foe Hist. Devil i. x. (1840) 142 If we may take the story of Job for a history, not a fable. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xxi, Some say he kissed her, but that's a fable. 1860 Hawthorne Transform. II. i. 3 It is a most enchanting fable..that is, if it be not a fact. |
b. esp. A fictitious story relating to supernatural or extraordinary persons or incidents, and more or less current in popular belief; a myth or legend. (Now rare.) Also, legendary or mythical stories in general; mythological fiction.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 6995 (Cott.), In his [Saleph's] time war þe fabuls written..Saturnus and sir iubiter. 1494 Fabyan Chron. v. cvi. 81 Of this last ende and buriyng of Arthur..are tolde many fables. 1520 Skelton Bk. P. Sparow, I remember the fable Of Penelope. 1592 Davies Immort. Soul iv. (1714) 40 Minerva is in Fables said, From Jove, without a Mother, to proceed. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 197 [Satan] in bulk as huge As whom the Fables name of monstrous size. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 288 The old fable of Seth's pillars. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 251 The existence..of a pigmy race of mankind, being founded in error, or in fable. 1837 Landor Pentameron Wks. 1846 II. 215 Scythia was a land of fable..to the Romans. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) II. iv. i. 170 Mohammedan fable had none of the inventive originality of fiction. |
c. A foolish or ridiculous story; idle talk, nonsense; esp. in phr. old wives' (women's) fables (arch.). Also † to take (something) for fable, to hold at fable (transl. OF. tenir a fable).
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Tim. iv. 7 Schonye thou vncouenable fablis and veyn [1388 vncouenable fablis and elde wymmenus fablis]. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode ii. xxi. (1869) 83 Wolt þou holde þe gospel at fable? 1508 Fisher Wks. (1876) 85 In the whiche confessyon we may not tell fables and other mennes fautes. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cclxxxviii. 430 Syluester toke it for no fable. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iv. §9 After a ..time.. they [narrations of miracles] grew to be esteemed but as old wives' fables. 1721 Strype Eccl. Mem. III. App. xx. 56 [We] distorted them into old wives fables. |
d. A fiction invented to deceive; a fabrication, falsehood. † Phrase, without (but, sans) fable.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 2349 (Cott.) Bot for þis hight moght be no fabul. c 1300 K. Alis. 134 Of gold he made a table Al ful of steorren, saun fable. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 146 Men..Þat neuer lufed fable bot mayntend pes & right. c 1350 Will. Palerne 4608 Þis ȝe witeþ wel alle with-oute any fabul. a 1500 Childe of Bristowe 227 in Hazl. E.P.P. (1864) 119 Al thynges..he gaf aboute, withouten fable, to pore men. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 534 Rycht fair he wes and feccfull als but fabill. 1548 Hall Chron. 87 b, The writers of Frenche fables to deface the glorye of the Englishmen, write [etc.]. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. iv. 76 Sans Fable, she her selfe reuil'd you there. 1635 Swan Spec. M. i. §1 (1643) 2 The fables of the Egyptians. 1700 Dryden tr. Ovid's Met. xiii. in Fables 457 This is not a Fable forg'd by me, Like one of his, an Ulyssean lie. 1786 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 52 What is said..on this subject in the Courier d'Europe is entirely fable. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 8 The extraordinary success of the fables of Oates. |
e. A creation of fable; something falsely affirmed to exist; a ‘myth’.
| c 1590 Marlowe Faust. v. 125 Come I think hell's a fable. 1611 Tourneur Ath. Trag. iv. iii, Their walking Spirits are mere imaginary fables. 1691 Hartcliffe Virtues p. xxiii, If a Man cannot believe..that the Immortality of the Soul is a Fable; then [etc.]. 1836 J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. v. (1852) 126 Some substitute there plainly must be..or moral administration is a fable. |
2. A short story devised to convey some useful lesson; esp. one in which animals or inanimate things are the speakers or actors; an apologue. Now the most prominent sense.
| 1340 Ayenb. 155 Herof ȝet ysopes þe fable of þe little hounde and of þe asse. 1483 Caxton Esope 3 She gaf to hym the yefte of speche for to speke dyuerse fables and Inuencions. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 227 A fable of the grasshopper and the Ant. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iv. §11 The husbandman whereof æsop makes the fable. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 183 ¶1 Jotham's fable of the Trees is the oldest that is extant. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) III. 496 His Fable of the Belly and the Members. 1841–4 Emerson Ess. Hist. Wks. (Bohn) I. 6 A poet makes twenty fables with one moral. 1865 Wright Hist. Caricature v. (1875) 75 We find no traces of fables among the original literature of the German race. |
3. [After Latin fabula.] The plot or story of a play or poem. † Also (rarely), a dramatic composition, play.
| 1678 Rymer Trag. of Last Age Ded. 4, I have chiefly consider'd the Fable or Plot, which all conclude to be the Soul of a Tragedy. Ibid. 87 This Fable [of Othello] is drawn from a Novel..by Giraldi Cinthio. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 39 ¶3 The modern Tragedy excels that of Greece and Rome, in the Intricacy and Disposition of the Fable. 1767 B. Thornton tr. Plautus II. 112 note, The part which Lysimachus afterwards takes in the fable. 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Cowley Wks. II. 60 The fable [of the Davideis] is plainly implex. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Shaks. Wks. (Bohn) I. 355 Shakespeare knew that tradition supplies a better fable than any invention can. |
† 4. a. Talk, in phrase to hold (a person) in fable; discourse, narration. Obs. rare.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 1439, I wole nat longe holde you in fable Of alle this gardyn delectable. 1530 Buckmaster Let. in Corpus Christi Documents (1838) 24 Here shalbe an ende for this tyme of this fable. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. ii. i, Whilst they, Sir, to relieve him in the fable, Make their loose comments, upon every word, Gesture, or look, I use. |
b. The subject of common talk; a person or thing who has become proverbial; a ‘byword’. arch. [After L. fabula: see Hor. Ep. i. xiii. 9.]
| 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings ix. 7 Israel shall be come a by⁓worde and fabell [1382 Wyclif, schal be into a proverbe and into a fable] amonge all nacions. 1591 Spenser Ruines of Rome vii, Ye sacred ruines..Alas! by little ye to nothing flie, The people's fable, and the spoyle of all. 1605 B. Jonson Volpone i. v, Knew you not that Sir? 'Tis the common fable. 1670 Cotton Espernon ii. vii. 316 He..became..the Fable of the Court. 1766 C. Anstey Bath Guide xv. 14 I'm a Fable!..and serve to dispense An Example to all Men of Spirit and Sense. 1842 Tennyson Gardener's Dau. 6 We grew The fable of the city where we dwelt. 1849 Thackeray Pendennis lxxv, He..broke the bank several nights, and was the fable of the place. |
¶ 5. ? A trifle, toy. Obs. rare—1.
| 1552 Huloet, Seller of fables, haberdash wares, or trifles. |
6. attrib. and Comb. a. attributive, as fable-book, fable-forge, † fable-lesynge, fable-poem, fable-poetry, fable-tale, fable-type; b. objective, as fable-forger, fable-maker, fable-monger, fable-teller, fable-weaver, fable-writer; fable-framing, fable-making, fable-mongering, fable-weaving vbl. ns. and adjs.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 421 Varro telleþ nouȝt a fable lesynge. 1552 Huloet, Fabler, or fable teller, or full of fables, fabulosus. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. iv. 114 And therefore smile I at those Fable-Forges. 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 679 How mischievous the presumption of those fable-forgers was. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 173 Rhodope..(fellow bondwoman to æsope the fable-maker). 1652 C. B. Stapylton Herodian vii. 55 Niger..who tells us a fabile tale. a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal Pref., The famous Italian fable-weaver, Ariosto. 1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles II. iii. 72 The Pythagorising Jewish humor of Fable-framing Philosophie. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. Contents 190 The licentious figments of Poets and Fable-mongers. a 1700 Dryden Epist. vii. 32 All these fable-makers. 1734 Waterland Scripture Vindicated Pref. xxii, The attentive Readers may perceive how to distinguish the true and proper Allegorists from the Fable-mongers or Mythics. 1788 V. Knox Winter Even. I. ii. xv. 208 Fable books used for the initiation of children in reading. 1833 H. A. in Philol. Mus. II. 442 Men who were not fable-makers or compilers of marvellous stories. 1851 H. Melville Whale xxxiv. 168 His credulous, fable-mongering ears. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 25 Feb. 10/3 A fable-writer and dramatic poet. 1911 S. S. Colvin Learning Process viii. 117 The tendency to fable-making causes him [sc. a child] to make statements..at variance with the truth. 1941 L. MacNeice Poetry of Yeats vi. 111 A new kind of fable-poetry which avoids becoming allegory. Ibid., The fable-poems..are dry, unromantic pieces. Ibid. ix. 192 In the plays..fable-types, who correspond to the beggars and fools and hermits of the lyrics. 1946 Blunden Shelley 24 In these fable-weavings something of the desire to be an author is seen. |
▪ II. fable, v.
(ˈfeɪb(ə)l)
Also 7 fabule.
[a. OF. fabler:— L. fābulārī to talk, discourse, f. fābula: see fable. The Eng. senses are directly derived from those of the n.]
† 1. intr. To speak, talk, converse. Obs. rare—1. [A Latinism.]
| 1382 Wyclif Luke xxiv. 15 While they talkiden (or fableden) [Vulg. fabularentur]..Ihesu him self neiȝynge went with hem. 1570 Levins Manip. 2 To fable, talke, confabulari. |
† 2. a. To tell fictitious tales, speak fiction, romance. b. To talk idly. Obs.
| a. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 133 Whanne men speken fables þei fablen in þer speche. 1401 Pol. Poems (1859) II. 41 Daw, thou fablest of foxes. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xviii. 16 David..doth not fable like a Poet. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. v. 25 Let æsop fable in a Winters Night. a 1721 Prior 1st Hymn Callimachus 69 Saturn's sons..Old poets mention, fabling. 1814 Southey Roderick vi. 115, I do not dream nor fable. |
| b. 1579 J. Jones Preserv. Bodie & Soule i. xviii. 31 Let Paracelsus..neuer so foolishly fable to the contrarie. 1653 Fisher Baby Baptism 7 Fabling about moods and figures. 1870 Daily News 15 Oct., Superstition is at last resolvable into the claim of ignorance..to fable of the ineffable. |
3. To speak falsely, talk falsehoods, lie. Const. with. Obs. exc. arch.
| 1530 Calisto & Melib. in Hazl. Dodsley I. 68, I wonder where she gets The things that she hath with folks for to fable. 1535 Boorde Let. in Introd. Knowl. Introd. (1870) 57 In wytness þat I do not fable with yow. 1612 Two Noble Kinsmen iii. v, To say verity, and not to fable We are a merry rout, or else a rabble. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 158 [Those who have made a pilgrimage to Mecca] are euer after accounted Syets or Holy men, and cannot fable from that time forward. 1801 Southey Thalaba x. xiii, Thou hast fabled with me! 1814 Mrs. J. West Alicia de Lacy III. 268 Mother, I do not fable. |
4. trans. To say or talk about fictitiously; to relate as in a fable, fiction, or myth; to fabricate, invent (an incident, a personage, story, etc.). With simple and complementary object, to with inf., with sentence as obj.; also absol. † to fable up: to work up by fiction into.
| 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 42 What foles do fable, take thou no hede at all. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 96 It is fabled with the Poets, that Ixion, Junoes Secretary, prouoked hir to Venery. 1583 Stanyhurst Aeneis ii. (Arb.) 46 Hee fabled sundrye reportes. 1598 Stow Surv. vii. (1603) 34 Aldersgate..called not of..Eldarne trees..as some haue fabuled. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. i. xi. 21/2 The Hurlers..fabuled to bee men metamorphosed into stones. 1638 Ford Fancies iii. iii, That is a truth much fabled, never found. 1667 Milton P.L. vi. 292 Turn this Heav'n itself into the Hell Thou fablest. 1726 De Foe Hist. Devil i. x. (1840) 139 Men soon fabled up their histories..into miracle and wonder. 1741 Watts Improv. Mind (1801) 4 The most learned of mortals will never..act over again what is fabled of Alexander. 1750 Warburton Julian v, Of these [cannon] the Chinese were at liberty to fable what they pleased. 1774 Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772. 354 This castle is fabled to have been founded by Ewin. 1794 Coleridge Relig. Musings viii, Armed Deities Such as the blind Ionian fabled erst. 1814 Wordsw. Wh. Doe iv. 110 More clear Than ghosts are fabled to appear. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iii. 120, I fabled nothing fair But, your example pilot, told her all. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. viii. 207 The inhabitants fabled that the birds which attempted to fly over it fell down into the water. 1877 L. Morris Epic Hades iii. 242 And so men fabled me, a huntress. |