fable 
fabular, fable, = It. favolare (= G. fabeln = 
Dan. fable), < L.fabulare, talk, speak, converse, 
< fabula, a narrative, account, subject of com- 
mon talk : see fable, n.~\ I. intrans. If. To 
talk. 
While thei talkiden [var. faMeden], 
Wyclif, Luke xxiv. 15 (Oxf.). 
2. To speak or write fiction; tell imaginary 
stories. 
As for Noah, the fabling Heathen, it is like, deifled him. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 52. 
But weaker even than the fabling spirit of these genea- 
logical inanities is the idle attempt to explode them by 
turning the years into days. De Quincey, Herodotus. 
Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell. Prior. 
3. To speak falsely; misrepresent; lie: often 
used euphemistically. 
For of the leste y wille you speke, 
And for tofabille I wille you nought. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Fumivall), p. 96. 
He/aWesnot, I hear the enemy. SAot.,lHen.VI., iv. 2. 
Do you think If able with you? 
B. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1. 
II. trans. To feign ; invent ; devise or fabri- 
cate; describe or relate feigningly. 
It is elegantly fabled by Tythonus. 
Bacon, Moral Fables, II. 
I pray you sit not fabling here old tales. 
/>'. Jonson, Magnetlck Lady, iv. 1. 
Hauing before fabled a Catalogue out of Berosus of the 
ancient Kings. Pitrchas, Pilgrimage, p. 72. 
We mean to win, 
Or turn this heaven into the hell 
Thou j 'ablest. Milton, P. L., vi. 292. 
fabled (f a'bld), p. a. Celebrated in fables ; fab- 
ulously imagined. 
Hail, fabled grotto ! hail, Elysian soil ! 
Thou fairest spot of fair Britannia's isle ! Tiekell. 
In such guise she stood, 
Like fabled Goddess of the Wood. 
Scott, L. of the L., 11. 24. 
fablemonger (fa'bl-mung'"ger), n. One who 
invents or repeats fables. 
To distinguish the true and proper allegorists from the 
fablemongers or mythics (I know not what else to call 
them), such as Dr. Burnet, &c., before mentioned. 
Waterland, Works, VI. 16. 
fabler (fa'b!6r), . [< ME./aWer,< OF.fableor, 
< L. fabulator, a talker, etc., < fabulare, talk : 
see fable, 13.'] If. A talker. 
The fablers or ianglers and seekers out of prudence. 
Wyclif, Bar. iii. 23 (Oxf.). 
2. A writer or speaker of fables or fictions ; a 
fabulist ; a dealer in feigned stories ; a falsifier. 
If so many examples . . . suffice not to confounde your 
simple salicque lawe inuented by t&lce fablers and crafty 
imaginers of your fablyng Frenche menue, then here what 
God saith in the booke of Numeri. Hall, Hen. V., an. 2. 
Old fabler, these be fancies of the churl. 
Tennyson, Balin and Balan. 
fabliau (fab-li-6'), . ; pi. fabliaux (-6z'). [F., < 
OF. fabliaus, older fablel = Pr. fablel, a short 
tale, etc., < ML. as if "fabulellus, for which L. 
fabella, a short tale, story, play, etc., dim. of 
fabula, a tale, fable: see fable, n.~\ In French 
lit., one of the metrical tales or diversions of 
the trouveres, belonging mostly to the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries. 
What the original forms of the Beast Epic and the Le- 
gend of the Saints were for the lowest, such were the 
fabliaux for the burgher middle class. 
Keary, Prim. Belief, p. 517. 
Until the appearance of Mr. Pater's "Studies of the Re- 
naissance, " knowledge of the delightful love-story of " Au- 
cassin and Nicolette" was practically confined to the stu- 
dents of fabliaux. The story, one of the most attractive 
of its class, appears in the famous collection of fabliaux 
of Le Grand, whence it was translated by Way in his well- 
known selection from that work. 
N. and Q., 7th ser., IV. 859. 
fabling (fa'bling), n. [< ME. fabling ; verbal 
n. of fable, .] 1. The making of fables ; fabu- 
lous narration or composition. 
Which occurrents iu Nature uo doubt haue giuen occa- 
sion to some of further fabling. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 38. 
The art of fabling may be classed among the mimetic 
arts. It is an aptitude of the universal and plastic facul- 
ties of our nature ; and man might not be ill denned as 
"a mimetic and fabling animal." 
/. D' Israeli, Amen, of Lit., I. 100. 
2. Fiction ; fables collectively. 
Let the dreams of classic idolatry perish extinct be 
the fairies and fairy trumpery of legendary fabling, in the 
heart of childhood, there will, forever, spring up a well 
of innocent or wholesome superstition the seeds of ex- 
aggeration will be busy there, and vital from every-day 
forms educing the unknown and the uncommon. 
Lamb, Elia, p. 160. 
fabric (f ab'rik), n. [Formerly also fabrick,fab- 
rike, fabriq, fabrique (= D.fabriek = G. Dan. 
Sw. fabrik) ; < F. fabrique = Pr. fabriga = Sp. 
2108 
fdbrica = Pg.fabrica It. fabbrica, < L. fabri- 
ca, a workshop, art, trade, product of art, struc- 
ture, fabric, < /after, a workman (artisan, smith, 
carpenter, joiner, etc.) (> ult. fever 1 *, q. v.), 
prob. < \f "fa in fa-c-ere, make : see fact. From 
L. fabrica, a workshop, through the vernacular 
OF. forge, comes E. forge, n., q. v.] 1. A 
structure of any kind; anything composed of 
parts systematically joined or connected, spe- 
cifically (n) The structure or frame of a building; more 
generally, the building itself ; an edifice, as a house, a 
temple, a bridge, etc. 
Hee that desireth further to reade, or rather to see the 
old lerusalem, with her holy Fabriques, let him resort to 
Arias Montanus his Antiquitates ludaicw. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 106. 
The South church is richly paved with black and white 
marble : the West is a new fabriq. 
Evelyn, Diary, Aug. 19, 1641. 
But that of Sancta Sophia, once a Christian Temple, ex- 
ceedeth not onely the rest, . . . but all other fabricks what- 
soever throughout the whole universe. 
Sandys, Travailes, p. 24. 
That Fabric rises high as Heav'n 
Whose Basis on Devotion stands. 
Prior, Engraved on a Column in the Church of Halstead. 
(6) A woven or felted cloth of any material or style of 
weaving; anything produced by weaving or interlacing: 
distinctively called textile fabric. 
Here and there a cobweb, woven to the consistence of a 
fabric, swung in the air. 
M . N. Murfree (C. E. CraddocK), Prophet of the Great 
[Smoky Mountains, x. 
The material most used in the early days of the Spanish 
conquest for the production of fabrics was the fiber of a 
plant called chaguar. 
U. S. Com. Rep., No. Ixix. (1886), p. 92. 
2. Any system of connected or interrelated 
parts: as, the universal fabric ; the social fab- 
ric. 
The Poets were wont to lay the foundations and first be- 
ginnings of their poeticall Fabriques with inuocation of 
their Gods and Muses. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 1. 
I find there are many pieces in this one fabric of man. 
Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, ii. 7. 
The new-created world, which fame in heaven 
Long had foretold, & fabric wonderful 
Of absolute perfection. Milton, P. L, x. 482. 
3. The structure of anything; the manner in 
which the parts of a thing are united ; work- 
manship ; texture ; tissue. 
The baseless fabric of this vision. 
Shak., Tempest, iv. 1. 
A young divine gave us an eloquent sermon on 1 Cor. 6, 
v. 20, inciting to gratitude, and glorifying God for the fab- 
riq of our bodys and the dignitie of our nature. 
Eeelyn, Diary, Oct. 28, 1684. 
The fabric of gauze is always open, flimsy, and transpa- 
rent. Ure. 
That distinguished archaeologist agrees with M. Stepha- 
ni in considering these vases to be of Athenian fabric, 
and to have been exported to the Crimea, Rhodes, ami 
other places with which Athens traded in the fourth cen- 
tury B. C. C. T. Newton, Art and Archaeol., p. 391. 
4. The act of building. [Bare.] 
for the fabric of the churches 
MUman. 
Tithe was received 
of the poor. 
Congregation Of the Fabric. See congregation, 6. 
Corded fabric, a textile fabric whose pile is cut in ribs 
running in the direction of the length of the warp ; or a 
fabric having larger and smaller threads alternately, thus 
making a ribbed surface. E. H. Knight. Elastic fab- 
ric. See elastic. Fabric lands, lands given to provide 
for the rebuilding or repair of cathedrals and churches. 
Mixed fabric, a textile fabric made of a combination of 
two or more fibers, as tweed, poplin, etc. Textile fab- 
ric. See def. 1 (6). 
fabrict (fab'rik), v. t. [< fabric, n. Cf . fabri- 
cate.] To build; construct; put into form. 
He who hears what praying there is for light and clearer 
knowledge to be sent down among us, would think of 
other matters to be constituted beyond the discipline of 
Geneva, fram'd and fabric' t already to our hands. 
Milton, Areopagitica, p. 52. 
fabricant (fab'ri-kant), n. [= D. G. Dan. Sw. 
fabrikant, < F. fabricant = Sp. Pg. fabricante 
= It. fabbricante, < L. fabrican(t-)s, ppr. of fa- 
bricari: see fabricate.'] A manufacturer; a 
working tradesman. Simmonds. 
fabricate (fab'ri-kat), v. t. ; pret. and pp. fab- 
ricated, ppr. fabricating. [< L. fabricatus, pp. 
of fabricari ( > It. fabbricare = Sp. Pg. fabricar 
= Pr.fabregar = F. fabriquer = D. fabriceren = 
G. fabrizieren = Dan. fabrikere = Sw. fabrice- 
ra), make, construct, frame, forge, build, etc., < 
fabrica, a fabric, building, etc.: see fabric. See 
also forge, v., ult. < L. fabricari."] 1. To frame; 
build ; construct ; form into a whole by joining 
the parts; form by art and labor; manufacture; 
make; produce: as, to fabricate a bridge or a 
ship ; to fabricate woolens. 
Our artificial timepieces clocks, watches, and chro- 
nometershowever Ingeniously contrived and admirably 
fabricated, are but transcripts, so to say, of the celestial 
motions. E. Everett, Uses of Astronomy. 
Fabularina 
2. To invent or contrive ; devise falsely ; con- 
coct; forge: as, to fabricate a lie or a story ; to 
fabricate a report. 
Crowland is thinking of hiring Peter of Blois, or some 
pretended Peter who borrows an illustrious name, to/a&- 
ria<t'> for her an apocryphal chronicle. 
Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 148. 
fabrication (fab-ri-ka'shon), n. [== Dan. Sw. 
fabrication, < F. fabrication = Pr. fabricatio = 
Sp. fabricacion = Pg. fabricaqao = It. fabbri- 
cazione, < L. fabricatio(n-), a making, framing, 
etc. ,< fabricari, make : see fabricate.] 1. The 
act of framing or constructing ; construction ; 
formation ; manufacture. 
The very idea of the fabrication of a new government 
is enough to fill us with disgust and horrour. 
Burke, Rev. in France. 
The fabrication of tapestry with the needle had always 
been a favorite occupation for ladies of the highest rank. 
Harper's Mag., LXXVII. 565. 
2. The act of devising or contriving falsely ; fic- 
titious invention; forgery: as, the fabrication 
of testimony; the fabrication of a report. 
Not only the fabrication and false making of the whole 
of a written instrument, but a fraudulent insertion, altera- 
tion, or erasure, even of a letter, in any material part of a 
true instrument, whereby a new operation is given to it, 
will amount to forgery. 
liussell, Crimes and Misdemeanours, II. 
3. That which is fabricated; especially, a false- 
ly contrived representation or statement; a 
falsehood: as, the story is a fabrication. 
For my part, I can only say, that what is related of the 
first audience with the king, and many of the following 
pages, seem to me to be fabrications of people that never 
have been in Abyssinia. Bruce, Source of the Nile, II. 151. 
= Syn. 3. Fiction, figment, invention, fable, forgery, coin- 
age. 
fabricator (fab'ri-ka-tor), n. [= F. fabricator 
= Sp. Pg. fabricador "= It. fabbricatore, < L. 
fabricator, a maker, framer, forger, etc., < fa- 
bricari, make: see fabricate. See also forger, 
ult. < L. fabricator.] 1. One who fabricates or 
constructs ; a maker or manufacturer. 
The almighty Fabricator of the universe, . . . when he 
created the erratic and fixed stars, did not make those 
huge immense bodies ... to twinkle only, and to be an 
ornament to the roof of heaven. Howell, Letters, iii. 9. 
Even the product of the loom is chiefly used as material 
for the fabricators of articles of dress or furniture, or of 
further instruments of productive industry, as in the case 
of the sailmaker. J. S. Mill. 
2. One who invents a false story; one who 
makes fictions. 
fabricatress (fab'ri-ka-tres), n. [= F. fabri- 
catrice = It. fabbricatrice, < LL. fabricatrix, 
tern, of fabricator.] A female fabricator. Lee. 
fabricature (fab'ri-ka-tur), n. [< OF. fabrica- 
ture = It. fabbricatu'rd ; as fabricate + -we.] 
Fabrication ; manufacture. 
Fabricia (fa-brish'i-a), . [NL., < Fabricius, 
a German 'entomologist : see Fabrician."] In 
zool. : (a) A genus of chsetopodous annelids. 
De Blainville, 1828. (6) A genus of dipterous 
insects, of the family EcMnomyidai, having the 
second antennal joint longer than the third. 
The larvae are parasitic on lepidopterous larvae. 
Desvoidy, 1830. 
Fabrician (fa-brish'ian), a. Pertaining to or 
proposed by the entomologist Johann Christian 
Fabricius (1743-1808): as, Fabrician genera. 
Fabrician pouch. See bm-sa Fabricii, under bursa. 
Fabrician system of classification, in entom., same as 
cibarian system (which see, under cibariari). 
fabrilet (fab'ril), a. [< OF. fabrile = Sp. Pg. 
fabril = It. fabrile, fabbrile, < L. fabrilis, < fa- 
ber, a workman, artisan : see fabric."] Pertain- 
ing to a workman, or to work in wood, stone, 
metal, etc. : as, fabrile skill. Cotgrave. 
fabular (fab'u-lar), a. [< L. fabularis, pertain- 
ing to fable, ^ fabula, fable: see fable."] Per- 
taining to or of the nature of fable ; fabulous. 
[Rare.] 
One would expect to find a creature so familiar in their 
sports, and so frequent a type in their literature, as the 
hawk, figuring among the "dramatis personal " of & fabu- 
lar romance constructed by mediaeval men. 
Athenaeum, No. 3067, p. 165. 
Fabularia (fab-u-la'ri-a), n. [NL., < L. fabu- 
laris, pertaining to fable : see fabular."] A ge- 
nus of fossil porcellaneous foraminifers, hav- 
ing narrow and mostly elongated chamberlets 
opening terminally upon a cribriform surface 
and filled with labyrinthic shell-matter. F. 
ovata abounds in the Eocene of France. 
Fabularina (fab"u-la-ri'na), n. pi. [NL., < 
Fabularia + -ina."]' A group of foraminifers, 
taking name from the genus Fabularia. Ehren- 
berg, 1838. 
