apologue (English)

Where does "apologue" come from?

The English noun 'apologue' was borrowed from French 'apologue'[1], which traces back to Latin 'apologus'[1][2][3]. This Latin term originated from Ancient Greek 'ἀπόλογος' meaning 'story, tale, or fable'[1], formed from 'ἀπό-' meaning 'off, away from' combined with 'λόγος' meaning 'speech'[1].

Full etymology tree

• apologue (English), 'A short story with a moral, often involving talking animals or objects; a fable.'
  • borrowed apologue (French), 'apologue'
    • borrowed apologus (Latin), 'narrative, story'
      • borrowed ἀπόλογος (apólogos) (Ancient Greek), 'story, tale'
        • prefix ἀπο- (apó-) (Ancient Greek), 'Indicating movement: away, from, off'
        • affix λόγος (lógos) (Ancient Greek), 'that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument'
          • inherited *lógos (Proto-Hellenic)
            • inherited *leǵ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to speak by carefully selecting one's words.'

Ancestors

• apologue (French)
• apologus (Latin)
• ἀπόλογος (Ancient Greek)

Descendants and derived words

• apologer (English)
• apological (English)

Sources

1. apologue (English) - Wiktionary
2. apologue (French) - Wiktionary
3. apologus (Latin) - Wiktionary
4. ἀπόλογος (apólogos) (Ancient Greek) - Wiktionary
5. λόγος (lógos) (Ancient Greek) - Wiktionary

Updated October 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris