Late 18th century; earliest use found in Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), poet, critic, and philosopher. After Hellenistic Greek τὰ Μιλησιακά (classical Latin Milesiae, short for Milesiae fabulae), the title of a collection of stories by Aristides (2nd cent. b.c.); probably so called because Miletus was the traditional setting for the genre.