fabliau

American  

[fab-lee-oh, fa-blee-oh] / ˈfæb liˌoʊ, fa bliˈoʊ /

noun

plural

fabliaux

1. a short metrical tale, usually ribald and humorous, popular in medieval France.

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fabliau British  

/ fɑblijo, ˈfæblɪˌəʊ /

noun

1. a comic usually ribald verse tale, of a kind popular in France in the 12th and 13th centuries

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Etymology

Origin of fabliau

1795–1805; < French; Old North French form of Old French fablel, fableau, equivalent to fable fable + -el diminutive suffix; -elle

Example Sentences

The piece, however, has hardly begun before it goes off into a medley of unconnected scenes, though each has a sort of fabliau interest of its own.

From The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) by Saintsbury, George

The types are not so distinct but that there is a borderland between the lai and the fabliau in which are found a few examples with the characteristics of each.

From Tales from the Old French by Various

It is a mistake to suppose, as is frequently done, that every legend of the middle ages is a fabliau.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 1 "Evangelical Church Conference" to "Fairbairn, Sir William" by Various

But the general tendency of mankind, reinforced and organised by a certain specially literary faculty and adaptability in the French genius, is on the whole sufficient to account for the fabliau.

From The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) by Saintsbury, George

And it is important to repeat that it connects itself in the general literary survey both with fabliau and with allegory.

From The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) by Saintsbury, George