different between fable vs falsehood

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: f??b?l, IPA^(key): /?fe?b?l/
• Rhymes: -e?b?l
• Hyphenation: fa?ble

Noun

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.

   • Old wives' fables.

   Synonym: legend

3. Fiction; untruth; falsehood.
4. The plot, story, or connected series of events forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem.

Derived terms

• personal fable
• fabulist

Translations

Verb

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, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 2,^[1]

     He fables not; I hear the enemy:

     Out, some light horsemen, and peruse their wings.

   • 1706, Matthew Prior, “An Ode, Humbly Inscribed to the Queen,” stanza 17, in Samuel Johnson (editor), The Works of the English Poets, London, 1779, Volume 30, p. 254,^[2]

     Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell,

     That wavering Conquest still desires to rove!

     In Marlborough’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,^[3]

     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.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VI, lines 288-292,^[4]

     […] err not, that so shall end

     The strife which thou callest evil, but we style

     The strife of glory; which we mean to win,

     Or turn this Heaven itself into the Hell

     Thou fablest […]

   • 1691, Arthur Gorges (translator), The Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon (1609), London, “Cassandra, or, Divination,” ^[5]

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

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Chapter II,^[6]

     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. […]

   Synonyms: make up, invent, feign, devise

Derived terms

• fabler

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• befal

French

Etymology

From Old French fable, borrowed from Latin fabula.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fabl/

Noun

fable f (plural fables)

1. fable, story

Synonyms

• conte
• histoire

Related terms

• affabulation

Further reading

• “fable” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??bl?/

Verb

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

• fabel

References

• “fable” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??bl?/

Verb

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

• fabel

References

• “fable” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fabula.

Noun

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

1. fable, story

Synonyms

• conte
• estoire

Descendants

• ? Dutch: fabel
• ? English: fable
• French: fable

Spanish

Verb

fable

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of fablar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of fablar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of fablar.
4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of fablar.

English

Etymology

From Middle English falshede, from false + -hede.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f?ls?h?d/

Noun

falsehood (countable and uncountable, plural falsehoods)

1. (uncountable) The property of being false.
2. (countable) A false statement, especially an intentional one; a lie.

   Don't tell falsehoods.

3. (archaic, rare) Mendacity, deceitfulness; the trait of a person who is mendacious and deceitful.
   • 1984, Witness Lee, Life-Study: Revelation: Volume Three: Messages 34-50, Living Stream Ministry (1999), ?ISBN, page 511:

     The false prophet looks like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon. This indicates his falsehood. […] He will pretend to be the same as Christ.

Usage notes

• Falsehood, Falseness, Falsity; untruth, fabrication, fiction. Instances may be quoted in abundance from old authors to show that the first three words are often strictly synonymous; but the modern tendency has been decidedly in favor of separating them, falsehood standing for the concrete thing, an intentional lie; falseness, for the quality of being guiltily false or treacherous: as, he is justly despised for his falseness to his oath; and falsity, for the quality of being false without blame: as, the falsity of reasoning. — The Century Dictionary, 1911.

Quotations

• Syn. Falsehood, Falseness, Falsity; untruth, fabrication, fiction. Instances may be quoted in abundance from old authors to show that the first three words are often strictly synonymous; but the modern tendency has been decidedly in favor of separating them, falsehood standing for the concrete thing, an intentional lie; falseness, for the quality of being guiltily false or treacherous: as, he is justly despised for his falseness to his oath; and falsity, for the quality of being false without blame: as, the falsity of reasoning. — the Century Dictionary, 1911.
• Micah 2:11 (KJV):

  If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

• 1909, John Potts, Secret Lodge System:

  The lodge upheld, sustained and honored this man in his double life, his deceit, his falsehood, his hypocrisy.

Synonyms

• (property of being false): falsity
• (intentionally false statement): lie
• (deceitfulness): falseness, mendacity
• See also Thesaurus:falsehood

Antonyms

• (false statement): truth, verity

Translations