English → Latin
“fable” in Latin
fābuladiscourse, narrative; a fable, tale, story; a playapologusnarrative, story; fable, tale, apologuecomminīscorto devise, contrive, inventmendāciumA lie, untruth, falsehood, fiction.; An illusion, counterfeit.commentīciusinvented, devised, fabricated; imaginary; fictitiouscompositusordered, arranged, regular, matching; composed, compound; calm, sedatepoēticuspoeticPhaedrusPhaedrus (an Athenian aristocrat, friend of Socrates); Phaedrus (a Latin fabulist)
The English word fable itself goes back to Latin for, through fābula.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
fable v.
fabulose narrare aliquid fingere, comminisci aliquid (to feign, invent anything). ☞ Fabulari occurs nowhere in this sense.
fable s.
fabula: fabella (any fictitious narrative, any tale or story; hence, of any mythological story, aesopian fable, or dramatic piece; both also, with ficta, commenticia, composita, or poetica): apologus (a fable, as a vehicle to convey a moral lesson, as the fables of aesop, Phaedrus, etc.): commentum: res commenticia: mendacium (a fictitious story, untruth): historia fabularis (the whole compass of mythology, Suet., Tiberius, 70). As the fable says, according to the fable, ut est in fabulis; ut ferunt fabulae: truth is often conveyed in the form of fable, sub fabulis velut involucris saepe veritas latet: to be fond of fables, fabulis duci or delectari: to hold anything to be a fable, falsum aliquid existimare.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for fable?
- The usual Latin words for “fable” are fābula, apologus, comminīscor; also mendācium, commentīcius, compositus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.