Fable

primarily signifies "speech, conversation." The first syllable comes from a root mu---, signifying "to close, keep secret, be dumb;" whence, muo, "to close" (eyes, mouth) and musterion, "a secret, a mystery;" hence, "a story, narrative, fable, fiction" (Eng., "myth"). The word is used of gnostic errors and of Jewish and profane fables and genealogies, in 1—Timothy 1:4; 4:7; 2—Timothy 4:4; Titus 1:14; of fiction, in 2—Peter 1:16 .