fable

将“fable”与“fa-bu-lous”（极好的）结合记忆，想象一个故事（fable）非常吸引人，以至于听起来像是在讲述一件奇妙（fabulous）的事情。通过这种故事性和奇妙性的联系，可以更容易地记住“fable”的意思是寓言或故事。

fable 寓言

来自PIE*bha, 说，词源同phone, fame. 指说的故事，寓言等。

fable

fable: [13] The Indo-European base *bha- ‘speak’ has produced a wide range of English words, including (via Germanic) ban and (via Latin fārī ‘speak’) affable, confess, fairy, fame, fate, ineffable, infant, nefarious, and profess. Fable is a member of this latter group; it comes via Old French fable from Latin fābula ‘narrative, story’ (source also of English fabulous [15]), which was a derivative of fārī. Fib [17] is probably short for an earlier fible-fable ‘nonsense’, a fanciful reduplication of fable.
=> affable, ban, confess, fabulous, fairy, fame, fate, fib, ineffable, infant, nefarious, profess, prophet

fable (n.)

c. 1300, "falsehood, fictitious narrative; a lie, pretense," from Old French fable "story, fable, tale; drama, play, fiction; lie, falsehood" (12c.), from Latin fabula "story, story with a lesson, tale, narrative, account; the common talk, news," literally "that which is told," from fari "speak, tell," from PIE root *bha- (2) "speak" (see fame (n.)). Restricted sense of "animal story" (early 14c.) comes from Aesop. In modern folklore terms, defined as "a short, comic tale making a moral point about human nature, usually through animal characters behaving in human ways" ["Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore"].

1. The old fable continues to echo down the centuries.

这则古老的寓言流传了数个世纪。

2. Is reincarnation fact or fable?

转世轮回是确有其事还是无稽之谈？

3. a land rich in fable

寓言之乡

4. The course is about fable and legend in modern literature.

这门课专讲现代文学中的神话和传奇作品.

5. This fable was written after the manner of Aesop.

这部寓言是仿照《伊索寓言》写成的.

【story, tale, fiction, fable, romance, novel】
这组词都有“小说，故事”的意思，其区别是：
story: 指篇幅较短，常包含一系列情节或事件，口述或书写成文的故事。
tale: 常可与story换用，指以事实为中心作叙述的故事，也指古代流传下来的传说故事或神话故事。
fiction: 指部分或全部虚构的短篇、中篇、长篇小说，也指传奇故事，是小说的总称。
fable: 指短小而寓有教育意义的虚构故事。故事的主人公多为拟人化的动物或非动物之类。也作传说解。
romance: 系novel早期的代用词，泛指具有强烈神话和传奇色彩的故事，现指爱情故事。
novel: 指任何有情节、人物、对白，虚构的长篇散文体故事。