fable us
According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary the word fabulous is a Middle English* word from the Latin word fabulosus, that means: resembling or suggesting a fable: of an incredible, astonishing, or exaggerated nature.
What is a fable? Wikepdia describes a fable:
“a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a “moral”), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim“
Aesop’s collection of fables mainly follows wikipedia’s defintion. Some of Aesop’s fables lack anthropomorphised animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature. The explicit Maxim’s often have a lyrical expression that may have helped their uptake in everyday conversation. I recognised many of the maxims without ever having read the orginal fable, for example
“one sparrow does not make a summer”
“Necessity is the mother of invention”
“Honesty is the best policy”
Already knowing these maxims helps me to remember the fable.
* Middle English is described by Wikipedia as between 1066 (Norman Invasion of England) and the 15th Century
