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apologue

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apologue

  • /ˈæpəlɒɡ/

Where it comes from

Borrowed from French apologue, from Latin apologus from Ancient Greek ἀπόλογος (apólogos, “story, tale, fable”) from ἀπό- (apó-, “off, away from”) + λόγος (lógos, “speech”). Equivalent to apo- + -logue.

noun apologues

  1. countable, uncountable A short story with a moral, often involving talking animals or objects; a fable. "Still I must bear my hard lot as well as I can—at least, I shall be amongst gentlefolks, and not with vulgar city people": and she fell to thinking of her Russell Square friends with that very same philosophical bitterness with which, in a certain apologue, the fox is represented as speaking of the
  2. countable, rhetoric, uncountable The use of fable to persuade the audience.

Translations

Every language

noun a short story with a moral, often involving talking animals or objects

Españolapólogo
Portuguêsapólogo
Françaisapologue
DeutschLehrfabel, Fabel
Italianoapologo
Русскийба́сня básnja, нравоучи́тельная ба́сня nravoučítelʹnaja básnja, аполо́г apológ

noun rhetoric: use of fable to persuade the audience

Françaisapologue
Русскийба́йка bájka, ба́сня básnja

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Cite this
MLA

"apologue." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/apologue. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

apologue. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/apologue

Chicago

"apologue." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/apologue.

BibTeX
@misc{apologue_2026,
  title = {apologue},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/apologue},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}