fabliau
- noun
- /fæbˈliːoʊ/
- NSFW
- The poet wrote a humorous fabliau that entertained everyone at the festival.
Examples
-
This episode, closely related to the tale type known as "the cradle," is little more than a fabliau.
Academic text (1991) -
He belongs to the lyrical tradition and to the courtly context that predominated in the early lines of this romance, but he seems strangely out of place in the "fabliau" world that has been instituted over three thousand lines later.
Academic text (1991) -
In the final episode before Joufroi's return to Poitiers, he may be little more than an actor in a fabliau, but he is an actor whose conduct, both here and in earlier passages, is an entirely appropriate response to the situations in which he finds himself.
Academic text (1991) -
Many medieval writers created a fabliau to poke fun at the customs of their time.
-
In her literature class, she studied a famous fabliau that cleverly mixed humor with social commentary.
How Humorous
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word fabliau comes from the old Latin word fabula, which means 'story' and is like the English word fable. A helpful way to remember it is that a fabliau was a short, often funny or naughty 'story' from medieval France, so its name simply means a little tale meant to entertain.