fable
n.a short story that teaches a lesson about life. The characters are often animals that talk and act like people.
n.a brief fictional narrative, typically featuring anthropomorphised animals or inanimate objects, that illustrates a moral lesson. Often associated with oral traditions and didactic literature.
“The tortoise and the hare is a famous fable about patience.”
“In the fable of the ant and the grasshopper, the ant works hard while the grasshopper plays all summer.”
“Ancient writers used the fable as a tool for social commentary, allowing them to critique powerful figures through the safety of animal metaphors.”
Commonly used with the preposition 'of' when naming the specific story.
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.