From Middle English, borrowed from Old French fable, from Latin fābula, from fārī + -bula ("instrumental suffix").

• enPR: fā′bəl, IPA: /ˈfeɪbəl/

fable (plural fables)

1. A fictitious narrative intended to enforce some useful truth or precept, usually with animals, etc. as characters; an apologue. Prototypically, Aesop's Fables.

   Synonyms: morality play

2. Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk.

   Synonyms: legend

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 1 Timothy 4:7 ↗, column 1:

     But refuſe prophane and olde wiues fables, and exerciſe thy ſelfe rather vnto godlineſſe.

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Gardener’s Daughter; or, The Pictures”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, page 19 ↗:

     […] we grew / The fable of the city where we dwelt.

3. Fiction; untruth; falsehood.
   • 1712 January 13 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, January 2, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 264; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC ↗, page 316 ↗:

     I say it would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away all which is the overplus of a great fortune by secret methods to other men.

     The spelling has been modernized.

4. The plot, story, or connected series of events forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem.

• fabulous

• French: conte, fable
• German: Fabel
• Italian: fiaba
• Portuguese: fábula
• Russian: ба́сня
• Spanish: fábula

• Russian: небыли́ца

• Russian: небыли́ца

fable (fables, present participle fabling; simple past and past participle fabled)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction; to write or utter what is not true.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene ii], page 111 ↗, column 2:

     He Fables not, I heare the enemie: / Out ſome light Horſemen, and peruſe their Wings.

   • 1709, Mat[thew] Prior, “An Ode, Humbly Inscrib’d to the Queen”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC ↗, stanza XVII, page 287 ↗:

     Vain now the Tales which fab’ling Poets tell, / That wav’ring Conqueſt ſtill deſires to rove; / In Marlbrô’s Camp the Goddeſs knows to dwell: / Long as the Hero’s Life remains her Love.

   • 1852, Matthew Arnold, Empedocles on Etna, Act II, in Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems, London: B. Fellowes, p. 50,

     He fables, yet speaks truth.

2. (transitive, archaic) To make up; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely; to recount in the form of a fable.

   Synonyms: make up, invent, feign, devise

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI ↗”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗, lines 288–292:

     […] erre not that ſo ſhall end / The ſtrife of Glorie: which we mean to win, / Or turn this Heav’n itſelf into the Hell / Thou fableſt […]

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 2: Nestor]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC ↗, part I [Telemachia], page 24 ↗:

     Fabled by the daughters of memory. And yet it was in some way if not as memory fabled it. A phrase, then, of impatience, thud of Blake’s wings of excess.

• German: fabulieren