fabliau
/ˈfablɪəʊ
/noun (plural fabliaux /ˈfablɪəʊz/)
A metrical tale, typically a bawdily humorous one, of a type found chiefly in early French poetry: one may dispute that the French fabliaux are pornographic [as modifier]: a distinctive feature of fabliau language...
- ‘The Reeve's Tale’ is a fabliau about two clerks who are robbed by a miller of some of the meal which they take to his mill to be ground, and who take their vengeance by sleeping with the miller's wife and daughter.
- Peasants form a large part in the parody and satire of medieval Europe from the fabliaux to plays.
- They tell tales ranging from courtly romances full of gallant knights and maidens-in-distress to rude fabliaux telling of the perils of drink, fighting and lust!
Origin
From Old French (Picard dialect) fabliaux, plural of fablel 'short fable', diminutive of fable.
- live one
- live one's own life
- live on one's nerves (or one's nerve ends)
- live out of a suitcase
- liver
- live rail
- liverance
- 'liverance
- liver-brown
- liver chestnut
- liver complaint
- liverd
- livered
- live register
- liver fluke
- liver-grown
- liver-hearted
- liveried
- livering
- liverish
- liverishly
- liverishness
- liverleaf
- liverless
- liver line