different between fable vs memoir

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 French mémoire (“memoir”), from Latin memoria (“memory”). Doublet of memoria and memory.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?m?w??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?m?w??/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /?m?m????/
• Hyphenation: mem?oir

Noun

memoir (plural memoirs)

1. An autobiography; a book describing the personal experiences of an author.

2. A biography; a book describing the experiences of a subject from personal knowledge of the subject or from sources with personal knowledge of the subject.

3. Any form of narrative describing the personal experiences of a writer.

Usage notes

A memoir may differ from a simple biography or autobiography by not focusing on the author as the primary subject matter, but on people and events in the subject's life. Emphasis is placed on personal observations about external events.

The plural memoirs is often used to refer to a single work.

Related terms

• memory

Translations

References

• “memoir” in Michael Agnes, editor-in-chief, Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th edition, Cleveland, Oh.: Wiley, 2010, ?ISBN; reproduced on the Collins English Dictionary
• “memoir” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “memoir”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).
• “memoir”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “Memoir” in John Walker, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary […] , London: Sold by G. G. J. and J. Robin?on, Paterno?ter Row; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791, ?OCLC, page 341, column 2.

Further reading

• memoir on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• memoir in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• momier