apologue

/ˈæpəlɒɡ/

Etymology

Borrowed from French apologue, from Latin apologus from Ancient Greek ἀπόλογος (apólogos, “story, tale, fable”) from ἀπό- (apó-, “off, away from”) + λόγος (lógos, “speech”). Equivalent to apo- + -logue.

apologue means A short story with a moral, often involving talking animals or objects; a fable. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.

apologue is pronounced /ˈæpəlɒɡ/.

Why “apologue” is a great word

APOLOGUE — [Noun] A short allegorical fable, often featuring animals or inanimate objects as characters, intended to convey a moral lesson. From the French apologue, from Latin apologus, from Ancient Greek ἀπόλογος (apólogos, "story, tale, fable"), from ἀπό- (apó-, "off, away from") + λόγος (lógos, "speech, discourse"). First attested in English 1545–55. Unlike a "parable," which grounds its lesson in the plausible soil of human affairs, or an "allegory," which constructs an extended, symbolic parallel to a complex reality, an apologue is a deliberate, fantastical miniature. It is the fox declaiming on the sourness of the unreachable grapes, the patient tortoise outstripping the hare, the north wind failing to steal the traveler’s cloak where the sun’s gentle warmth succeeds—each a polished narrative mechanism built for the single, efficient delivery of truth, a stark little stage upon which a lesson is made unavoidably plain.

noun

A short story with a moral, often involving talking animals or objects; a fable.“"Still I must bear my hard lot as well as I can—at least, I shall be amongst gentlefolks, and not with vulgar city people": and she fell to thinking of her Russell Square friends with that very same philosophical bitterness with which, in a certain apologue, the fox is represented as speaking of the grapes.”
The use of fable to persuade the audience.