Is fable a word

Definition of Fable

The word fable is derived from the Latin word fibula, which means “a story,” and a derivative of the word fari, which means “to speak.” Fable is a literary device that can be defined as a concise and brief story intended to provide a moral lesson at the end.

In literature, it is described as a didactic lesson given through some sort of animal story. In prose and verse, a fable is described through plants, animals, forces, of nature, and inanimate objects by giving them human attributes wherein they demonstrate a moral lesson at the end.

Features of a Fable

• A fable is intended to provide a moral story.
• Fables often use animals as the main characters. They are presented with anthropomorphic characteristics, such as the ability to speak and to reason.
• Fables personify the animal characters.

Examples of Fable in Literature

Example #1: The Fox and the Crow (By Aesop’s Fables)

“A crow was sitting on a branch of a tree with a piece of cheese in her beak when a fox observed her and set his wits to work to discover some way of getting the cheese. Coming and standing under the tree he looked up and said, ‘What a noble bird I see above me! Her beauty is without equal…’ Down came the cheese, of course, and the Fox, snatching it up, said, ‘You have a voice, madam, I see: what you want is wits.’”

Aesop is probably the most notable author of famous examples of fable. Aesopian fables put emphasis on the social communications of human beings, and hence the morals he draws deal with realities of life. In this excerpt, Aesop gives a moral lesson that flatterers must not be trusted.

Example #2: Animal Farm (By George Orwell)

“Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies … and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end … No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery …”

Here, old Major is speaking to other animals. It is presented as the story of the development and emergence of Soviet communism, through an animal fable. He advises the animals to struggle against the humans, telling them that rebellion is the only feasible way out of their miserable situation.

Example #3: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (By S.T. Coleridge)

First Voice
“But tell me, tell me! speak again,
Thy soft response renewing —
What makes that ship drive on so fast?
What is the ocean doing?”

Second Voice
“Still as a slave before his lord,
The ocean hath no blast…
Up to the moon is cast —…
See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more…

“Without a breeze, without a tide,
She steadies with upright keel!”

The Voices in this poem explain the moving ship without waves and wind. There is a supernatural force at work. This literary piece is one of the well-written fable examples that teach about penance, redemption, and sin. The killing of a bird symbolizes the original sin.

Example #4: Gulliver’s Travels (By Jonathan Swift)

“I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for, as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner … In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin…”

Gulliver’s Travels is a mixture of political allegory, moral fable, mock utopia, and social anatomy. In this excerpt, Captain Gulliver reaches an unknown place among strange creatures who speak a strange language. This is a type of modern fable intended to satirize political vices.

Function of Fable

The purpose of writing fables is to convey a moral lesson and message. Fables also give readers a chance to laugh at the follies of human beings, and they can be employed for the objective of satire and criticism. They are very helpful in teaching children good lessons based on examples. However, in literature, fables are used for didactic purposes at a much broader level.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a «moral»), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying.

A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Conversely, an animal tale specifically includes talking animals as characters.

Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James Version of the New Testament, «μῦθος» («mythos«) was rendered by the translators as «fable»^[1] in the First Epistle to Timothy, the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle of Peter.^[2]

A person who writes fables is a fabulist.

History[edit]

The fable is one of the most enduring forms of folk literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree,^[3] less by literary anthologies than by oral transmission. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country.

Aesopic or Aesop’s fable[edit]

The varying corpus denoted Aesopica or Aesop’s Fables includes most of the best-known western fables, which are attributed to the legendary Aesop, supposed to have been a slave in ancient Greece around 550 BCE. When Babrius set down fables from the Aesopica in verse for a Hellenistic Prince «Alexander», he expressly stated at the head of Book II that this type of «myth» that Aesop had introduced to the «sons of the Hellenes» had been an invention of «Syrians» from the time of «Ninos» (personifying Nineveh to Greeks) and Belos («ruler»).^[4] Epicharmus of Kos and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables.^[5] Many familiar fables of Aesop include «The Crow and the Pitcher», «The Tortoise and the Hare» and «The Lion and the Mouse». In ancient Greek and Roman education, the fable was the first of the progymnasmata—training exercises in prose composition and public speaking—wherein students would be asked to learn fables, expand upon them, invent their own, and finally use them as persuasive examples in longer forensic or deliberative speeches. The need of instructors to teach, and students to learn, a wide range of fables as material for their declamations resulted in their being gathered together in collections, like those of Aesop.

Africa[edit]

African oral culture^[6] has a rich story-telling tradition. As they have for thousands of years, people of all ages in Africa continue to interact with nature, including plants, animals and earthly structures such as rivers, plains, and mountains. Grandparents enjoy enormous respect in African societies and fill the new role of story-telling during retirement years. Children and, to some extent, adults are mesmerized by good story-tellers when they become animated in their quest to tell a good fable.

Joel Chandler Harris wrote African-American fables in the Southern context of slavery under the name of Uncle Remus. His stories of the animal characters Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear are modern examples of African-American story-telling, this though should not transcend critiques and controversies as to whether or not Uncle Remus was a racist or apologist for slavery. The Disney movie Song of the South introduced many of the stories to the public and others not familiar with the role that storytelling played in the life of cultures and groups without training in speaking, reading, writing, or the cultures to which they had been relocated to from world practices of capturing Africans and other indigenous populations to provide slave labor to colonized countries.

India[edit]

India has a rich tradition of fables, many derived from traditional stories and related to local natural elements. Indian fables often teach a particular moral.^[7] In some stories the gods have animal aspects, while in others the characters are archetypal talking animals similar to those found in other cultures. Hundreds of fables were composed in ancient India during the first millennium BCE, often as stories within frame stories. Indian fables have a mixed cast of humans and animals. The dialogues are often longer than in fables of Aesop and often comical as the animals try to outwit one another by trickery and deceit. In Indian fables, humanity is not presented as superior to the animals. Prime examples of the fable in India are the Panchatantra and the Jataka tales. These included Vishnu Sarma’s Panchatantra, the Hitopadesha, Vikram and The Vampire, and Syntipas’ Seven Wise Masters, which were collections of fables that were later influential throughout the Old World. Ben E. Perry (compiler of the «Perry Index» of Aesop’s fables) has argued controversially that some of the Buddhist Jataka tales and some of the fables in the Panchatantra may have been influenced by similar Greek and Near Eastern ones.^[8] Earlier Indian epics such as Vyasa’s Mahabharata and Valmiki’s Ramayana also contained fables within the main story, often as side stories or back-story. The most famous folk stories from the Near East were the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights.

The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian assortment of fables. The earliest recorded work, ascribed to Vishnu Sharma, dates to around 300 BCE. The tales are likely much older than the compilation, having been passed down orally prior to the book’s compilation. The word «Panchatantra» is a blend of the words «pancha» (which means «five» in Sanskrit) and «tantra» (which means «weave»). It implies weaving together multiple threads of narrative and moral lessons together to form a book.

Europe[edit]

Fables had a further long tradition through the Middle Ages, and became part of European high literature. During the 17th century, the French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695) saw the soul of the fable in the moral—a rule of behavior. Starting with the Aesopian pattern, La Fontaine set out to satirize the court, the church, the rising bourgeoisie, indeed the entire human scene of his time.^[10] La Fontaine’s model was subsequently emulated by England’s John Gay (1685–1732);^[11] Poland’s Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801);^[12] Italy’s Lorenzo Pignotti (1739–1812)^{[13][verification needed]} and Giovanni Gherardo de Rossi (1754–1827);^{[14][verification needed]} Serbia’s Dositej Obradović (1739–1811); Spain’s Félix María de Samaniego (1745–1801)^[15] and Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa (1750–1791);^{[16][verification needed]} France’s Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794);^[17] and Russia’s Ivan Krylov (1769–1844).^[18]

Modern era[edit]

In modern times, while the fable has been trivialized in children’s books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature. Felix Salten’s Bambi (1923) is a Bildungsroman—a story of a protagonist’s coming-of-age—cast in the form of a fable. James Thurber used the ancient fable style in his books Fables for Our Time (1940) and Further Fables for Our Time (1956), and in his stories «The Princess and the Tin Box» in The Beast in Me and Other Animals (1948) and «The Last Clock: A Fable for the Time, Such As It Is, of Man» in Lanterns and Lances (1961). Władysław Reymont’s The Revolt (1922), a metaphor for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, described a revolt by animals that take over their farm in order to introduce «equality». George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) similarly satirized Stalinist Communism in particular, and totalitarianism in general, in the guise of animal fable.

In the 21st century, the Neapolitan writer Sabatino Scia is the author of more than two hundred fables that he describes as «western protest fables». The characters are not only animals, but also things, beings, and elements from nature. Scia’s aim is the same as in the traditional fable, playing the role of revealer of human society. In Latin America, the brothers Juan and Victor Ataucuri Garcia have contributed to the resurgence of the fable. But they do so with a novel idea: use the fable as a means of dissemination of traditional literature of that place. In the book «Fábulas Peruanas» Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine, published in 2003, they have collected myths, legends, and beliefs of Andean and Amazonian Peru, to write as fables. The result has been an extraordinary work rich in regional nuances. Here we discover the relationship between man and his origin, with nature, with its history, its customs and beliefs then become norms and values.^{[clarification needed][19]}

Fabulists[edit]

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Classic[edit]

• Aesop (mid-6th century BCE), author/s of Aesop’s Fables
• Vishnu Sarma (c. 200 BCE), author of the anthropomorphic political treatise and fable collection, the Panchatantra
• Bidpai (c. 200 BCE), author of Sanskrit (Hindu) and Pali (Buddhist) animal fables in verse and prose, sometimes derived from Jataka tales
• Syntipas (c. 100 BCE), Indian philosopher, reputed author of a collection of tales known in Europe as The Story of the Seven Wise Masters
• Gaius Julius Hyginus (Hyginus, Latin author, native of Spain or Alexandria, c. 64 BCE – 17 CE), author of Fabulae
• Phaedrus (15 BCE – 50 CE), Roman fabulist, by birth a Macedonian
• Nizami Ganjavi (Persian, 1141–1209)
• Walter of England (12th century), Anglo-Norman poet, published Aesop’s Fables in distichs c. 1175
• Marie de France (12th century)
• Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Persian, 1207–1273)
• Vardan Aygektsi (died 1250), Armenian priest and fabulist
• Berechiah ha-Nakdan (Berechiah the Punctuator, or Grammarian, 13th century), author of Jewish fables adapted from Aesop’s Fables
• Robert Henryson (Scottish, 15th century), author of The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian
• Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519)
• Biernat of Lublin (Polish, 1465? – after 1529)
• Jean de La Fontaine (French, 1621–1695)
• Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (Georgian, 1658–1725), author of The Book of Wisdom and Lies
• Bernard de Mandeville (English, 1670–1733), author of The Fable of the Bees
• John Gay (English, 1685–1732)
• Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (German, 1715–1769)
• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (German, 1729–1781)
• Ignacy Krasicki (Polish, 1735–1801), author of Fables and Parables (1779) and New Fables (published 1802)
• Dositej Obradović (Serbian, 1739–1811)
• Félix María de Samaniego (Spanish, 1745–1801), best known for «The Ant and the Cicade»
• Tomás de Iriarte (Spanish, 1750–91)
• Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, (French, 1755–94), author of Fables (published 1802)
• Ivan Dmitriev (Russia, 1760–1837)
• Ivan Krylov (Russian, 1769–1844)
• Hans Christian Andersen (Danish, 1805–1875)

Modern[edit]

• Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910)
• Rafael Pombo (1833 – 1912), Colombian fabulist, poet, writer
• Ambrose Bierce (1842 – ?1914)
• Joel Chandler Harris (1848 – 1908)
• Sholem Aleichem (1859 – 1916)
• George Ade (1866 – 1944), Fables in Slang, etc.
• Władysław Reymont (1868 – 1925)
• Felix Salten (1869 – 1945)
• Don Marquis (1878 – 1937), author of the fables of archy and mehitabel
• Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924)
• Damon Runyon (1884 – 1946)
• James Thurber (1894 – 1961), Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
• George Orwell (1903 – 1950)
• Dr. Seuss (1904 – 1991)
• Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904 – 1991)
• Nankichi Niimi (1913 – 1943), Japanese author and poet
• Sergey Mikhalkov (1913-2009), Soviet author of children’s books
• Pierre Gamarra (1919 – 2009)
• Richard Adams (1920–2016), author of Watership Down
• José Saramago (1922 – 2010), Portuguese writer, author of Ensaio sobre a cegueira
• Italo Calvino (1923 – 1985), Cosmicomics etc.
• Arnold Lobel (1933 – 87), author of Fables, winner 1981 Caldecott Medal
• Ramsay Wood (born 1943), author of Kalila and Dimna: Fables of Friendship and Betrayal
• Bill Willingham (born 1956), author of Fables graphic novels
• David Sedaris (born 1956), author of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
• Hayao Miyazaki (born 1941), Japanese filmmaker, director of Spirited Away
• Guillermo del Toro^[20] (born 1964), Mexican filmmaker, director of Pan’s Labyrinth
• Pendleton Ward (born 1982), American animator, creator of Adventure Time

Notable fable collections[edit]

• Aesop’s Fables by Aesop
• Jataka tales
• Panchatantra by Vishnu Sarma
• Baital Pachisi (also known as Vikram and The Vampire)
• Hitopadesha
• A Book of Wisdom and Lies by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani
• Seven Wise Masters by Syntipas
• One Thousand and One Nights (also known as Arabian Nights, c. 800–900)
• Fables (1668–1694) by Jean de La Fontaine
• Fables and Parables (1779) by Ignacy Krasicki
• Fairy Tales (1837) by Hans Christian Andersen
• Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1881) by Joel Chandler Harris
• Fantastic Fables (1899) by Ambrose Bierce
• Fables for Our Time (1940) by James Thurber
• 99 Fables (1960) by William March
• Collected Fables (2000) by Ambrose Bierce, edited by S. T. Joshi
• Kalīla wa-Dimna

See also[edit]

• Allegory
• Animal tale
• Anthropomorphism
• Apologia
• Apologue
• «The Blind Man and the Lame»
• Fabel
• Fables
• Fairy tale
• Fantastique
• Ghost story
• Parable
• Proverb
• Wisdom
• «The Wolf and the Lamb»

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• Buckham, Philip Wentworth (1827). Theatre of the Greeks. J. Smith. The Theatre of the Greeks.
• King James Bible; New Testament (authorised).
• DLR [David Lee Rubin]. «Fable in Verse», The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.
• Read fables by Aesop and La Fontaine

Further reading[edit]

• Gish Jen (3 Jan 2011). «Three Modern Fables to Capture Your Imagination» (Audio with transcript). NPR : All Things Considered.
• Tobias Carroll (29 Sep 2017). «The Challenge of Modern Fables: Ben Loory’s Erudite Surrealism». Tor.com.
• Robert Spencer Knotts. «Modern Fables». The Humanity Project.

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French fable, from Latin fābula, from fārī (“to speak, say”) + -bula (“instrumental suffix”). See ban, and compare fabulous, fame. Doublet of fabula.

Pronunciation[edit]

• enPR: fā′bəl, IPA^(key): /ˈfeɪbəl/
• Rhymes: -eɪbəl
• Hyphenation: fa‧ble

Noun[edit]

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.

   Synonym: morality play

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

   Synonym: legend
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.

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

   • 1695, John Dryden, A Parallel betwixt Painting and Poetry:

     For the moral (as Bossu observes,) is the first business of the poet, as being the groundwork of his instruction. This being formed, he contrives such a design, or fable, as may be most suitable to the moral;

Derived terms[edit]

• have a fable for (may be etymologically unrelated)
• personal fable
• fabulist

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

fable (third-person singular simple present 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, 2nd edition, 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,^[1]

     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], […], →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 […]

   • 1691, “Cassandra, or, Divination”, in Arthur Gorges, transl., The Wisdom of the Ancients, London, translation of [De Sapientia Veterum] by Francis Bacon, page 1:

     THE Poets Fable, That Apollo being enamoured of Caſſandra, was by her many ſhifts and cunning ſlights ſtill deluded in his Deſire […]

   • 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.

Derived terms[edit]

• fabler

Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• fable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams[edit]

• befal

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old French fable, borrowed from Latin fabula.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /fabl/

Noun[edit]

fable f (plural fables)

1. fable, story

   Synonyms: conte, histoire

[edit]

• affabulation

Descendants[edit]

• → Turkish: fabl

Further reading[edit]

• “fable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From the noun fabel, ultimately from Latin fabula, from fā(rī) (“to speak, say”) + -bula (“instrumental suffix”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /fɑːblə/

Verb[edit]

fable (imperative fabl or fable, present tense fabler, passive fables, simple past and past participle fabla or fablet)

1. to fantasize, dream

   fable om suksess

   dream about success

Derived terms[edit]

• fabel

References[edit]

• “fable” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From the noun fabel, ultimately from Latin fabula, from fā(rī) (“to speak, say”) + -bula (“instrumental suffix”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /fɑːblə/

Verb[edit]

fable (imperative fabl, present tense fablar, simple past and past participle fabla)

1. to fantasize, dream

   fable om suksess

   dream about success

2. to make up (something)

Derived terms[edit]

• fabel

References[edit]

• “fable” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin fabula.

Noun[edit]

fable f (oblique plural fables, nominative singular fable, nominative plural fables)

1. fable, story

Synonyms[edit]

• conte
• estoire

Descendants[edit]

• Middle French: fable
  • French: fable
• → Middle Dutch: fabele
  • Dutch: fabel
• → Middle English: fable
  • English: fable
• → Middle High German: fabele
  • German: Fabel

басня, сказка, миф, мифы, выдумка, небылица, рассказывать басни, выдумывать

существительное ↓

глагол ↓

Словосочетания

the fable of the fox and the crow — басня о лисе и вороне  
a fable about personal redemption presented in the garb of a conventional horror story — басня о личном спасении, представленная в виде обычной страшилки  
moral of / to the fable — мораль басни  
the whole texture of the fable — вся фактура басни  
reworking of the classic fable — переработка классической басни  
disentangle a few facts from a mass of fable — извлечь несколько зёрен истины из кучи небылиц  
fable etiquette — правила поведения за столом  
beast fable — басня о животных, олицетворяющих людей  
fable tellar — рассказчик басен  
old wives’ fable — бабьи сплетни  
the moral of the fable — мораль басни  
this is mere fable — это все выдумка  

Примеры с переводом

Возможные однокоренные слова

fabler  — сказочник, баснописец, сочинитель небылиц, выдумщик
fabled  — легендарный, сказочный, придуманный, выдуманный, баснословный

Формы слова

noun
ед. ч.(singular): fable
мн. ч.(plural): fables

Definition of fable: Fables are short pieces of literature with a clear moral.

Fables are fictional stories, poems or prose, with a specific moral or lesson that is conveyed to the reader.

Fables often include similar features. They communicate a moral lesson to the reader. Often, fables tell a story through the use of animal characters. These animals are not only personified, but they are given anthropomorphic abilities such as the ability to reason.

Fable Example:

• In the Aesop fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”, the main character, the Tortoise, is able to reason that slow and steady wins the race, and the Hare’s downfall is his excessive self-confidence.

Fable vs. Parable: What’s the Difference?

Both fables and parables are stories written in prose or verse form that teach moral lessons. However, parables tend to teach these lessons through the use of human characters, and the lessons tend to be religious in nature.

Here is an example of a parable:

• In the Bible, the story of the rich man and Lazarus is a parable that teaches the lesson that people must be charitable to those less fortunate that us. For the rich man was not charitable to Lazarus and was punished with a sentence to Hell, while Lazarus was allowed into Heaven.

The Function of Fables

The purpose of a fable is to convey moral messages to the readers. By using animals as the voices of reason in these stories, they are particularly appealing to young children who are learning how to behave morally in the world.

Because fables teach morals, they are also helpful in understanding the values of the culture in which they are written.

Examples of Fables in Literature

In the children’s book Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae, the main character is a giraffe named Gerald. In Gerald’s jungle, there is a yearly dance that is held for all of the animals.

However, Gerald is self-conscious about his lack of dancing skills compared to the other animals. A grasshopper leads Gerald to the realization that, “We all can dance…when we find music that we love.”

This fable teaches young children to be true to themselves and embrace their individuality rather than feeling ashamed of their differences.

Our second example is from George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm. In this work, the animals are the main characters and are symbolic of leaders during the Russian Revolution. These animals are meant to teach a lesson about the dangers of Russia’s interpretation and practice of Communism.

This novella is categorized as a fable because the main characters are animals that are able to think and reason, and it includes a moral message that is conveyed to the readers.

Summary: What are Fables?

Define fables: Fables are short fictional stories that often include main characters that are animals and convey a moral lesson to the reader.

Final example:

In the classic Aesop fable “The Lion and the Mouse,” a lion spare’s a mouse’s life after the mouse tells him that if he lets him go that the favor will be returned one day. While the lion is amused and dismissive that a mouse could ever safe his life, it turns out to be a lesson learned.

The lion later finds himself caught in a hunter’s net, and his rescuer is the same mouse that nibbles the net to free him. The moral of this fable is that kindness pays off in the long run.

Contents

• 1 What is a Fable Story?
• 2 Fable vs. Parable: What’s the Difference?
• 3 The Function of Fables
• 4 Examples of Fables in Literature
• 5 Summary: What are Fables?

Definitions For Fable

noun

• A story about mythical or supernatural beings or events
• A short moral story (often with animal characters)
• A deliberately false or improbable account
• A short story that usually is about animals and that is intended to teach a lesson
• A story or statement that is not true

English International (SOWPODS)
YES

Points in Different Games

Scrabble

Words with Friends

The word Fable is worth 10 points in Scrabble and 12 points in Words with Friends

Examples of Fable in a Sentence

• A fable about busy ants
• The story that he won the battle single-handedly is a mere fable.
• He combines fact and fable to make a more interesting story.

Synonyms for Fable

Antonyms for Fable

[Footnote: For an explanation of the term fable, see page 236.] 1. ❋ Charles W. Sanders (N/A)

While I think the book has an intriguing premise, calling it a fable is a stretch. ❋ Roger Sutton (2006)

Othellos, the Don Juans that illustrate to us that the fable is a game of chess played over and over again, a thousand times with whatever pieces destiny throws up at any given time. ❋ Unknown (1989)

Apparently, a redemption fable is one thing; showing the nasty details of the road to redemption is something else. ❋ Josh Fleet (2010)

The underlying emotion to this well written fable is hatred and resentment. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Log in to Reply jccbin — I think this little fable is appropriate to your comment ❋ Unknown (2009)

«Another penetrating, emotionally lacerating antiwar fable from a master of the form.» ❋ Unknown (2010)

This fable is serve accentuated by a actuality which a single of Coach Troppmanns teenage football players attended all those camps in Booneville, California as great as expected was sleeping in a nearby cabin when Bryant as great as McKay were figuring out how to change a world. ❋ Admin (2009)

She has to tell the story of a well-known myth, parable, fairy story or fable from the point of view of a minor character. ❋ Maxine (2008)

Lowdown: The four page opening fable is as absorbing an prescient as the gruesome 76-page war story that ends the book. ❋ Unknown (2007)

The essence of the beast-fable is a reminiscence of Homo primigenius with erected ears and hairy hide, and its expression is to make the brother brute behave, think and talk like him with the superadded experience of ages. ❋ Unknown (2006)

Still, transforming the story of one afternoon into a book-length fable, even a short book-length fable, is a bit of a stretch …. ❋ Unknown (2006)

This Talmudic fable is hinted at in the Koran (chaps. xxxviii.), and commentators have extensively embroidered it. ❋ Unknown (2006)

The literary origin of the fable is not Buddhistic: we must especially shun that “Indo – Germanic” school which goes to India for its origins, when Pythagoras, Solon, Herodotus, ❋ Unknown (2006)

Blanketed in prose that has never been dreamier and gloriously vivid imagery, this life-affirming fable is ripe with Hoffman’s trademark symbolism and magic, but with a steelier edge. ❋ Unknown (2005)

A magical, multigenerational saga encompassing two hundred years in the life of an unforgettable family — a book of love stories, ill-fated and blessed, sensuous as a dream, unfolding in a time and a place where fable is more potent than fact, where the imagination is more powerful than any truth, where the line between myth and history has all but dissolved: Jerusalem, from the early years of the nineteenth century to the present. ❋ Unknown (2000)

If the fable is rendered from a handbill then the audience would have the military scenario in hand prior to the performance and therefore any anxieties regarding the fate of the English prisoners would have been assuaged in advance. ❋ Unknown (2000)

The [Fable] of [beauty and the beast] ❋ Hazel777 (2012)

(When walking down the street and having spotted an attractive woman, one friend might say to the other)
«[Fable].»
«The overwhelming majority of engineering majors are fugly, but [every so often] you get one or two [fable] [bodied] students.» ❋ Adumb (2005)

[God Damn] she is fable, [look at] those [fuckin tits]!! ❋ Alex Kabil (2007)

Guess what? [Fable] [ownz] you! Let’s go play it and [wank off] to my 54 hot wives! ❋ BenIsTyte (2005)

Guy 1 : «Yeah, he said that the car was gonna have everything… it [doesn’t even] have a [steering wheel].»
Guy 2 : «Aw, man, you got [fabled].» ❋ Capn Andy (2004)

Jim: Hey are you playing Fable?
Joe: Yeah, after [im done] getting [smashed] and beating the everliving [shit out] of these kids. ❋ Cheesebadger (2005)

PS2 Owner: I’ve never played the game, but I will go with what some biased website said and say it’s bad! Plus it’s on Xbox, so it = t3h [suxxorz].
Gamecube Owner (Both of you): omg t3h [h4] h4, w33 h4v3 t3h m4ri0 omg!
[Xbox Owner]: November 9th, you guys are all going down… ❋ Kevin C. (2004)

[if you want] to avoid [trouble] with [your parents], do not try to fable them ❋ Sexydimma (2018)

[if you want] to avoid [trouble] with [your parents], do not try to fable them ❋ Sexydimma (2021)

I [fabled] [all night] last night.
[I’m all] fabled out.
I fabled it up. ❋ Dustin And Riley (2010)