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.