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.

---

fabliau British  

/ fɑblijo, ˈfæblɪˌəʊ /

noun

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

---

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

In another fabliau, a lady uses the solar as a hiding place for her husband, who has disguised himself as a gallant in order to test his wife's faithfulness.

From Women of England by James, Bartlett Burleigh

Romance, from the light fabliau to the voluminous fiction, has admitted, in the luxury of our knowledge and curiosity, not only of critical investigation, but of its invention, by tracing it to a single source.

From Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature by Disraeli, Isaac

The dramatic germ contained in the fabliau and quickened by the mystery produces the profane drama.

From A Short History of French Literature by Saintsbury, George

There is, however, in the fabliau proper not so very much of direct satire, this being indeed excluded by the definition given above, and by the thoroughly artistic spirit in which that definition is observed.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 2 "French Literature" to "Frost, William" by Various

The fabliau has been sufficiently dealt with already.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 2 "French Literature" to "Frost, William" by Various