Parable

 WORD OF THE DAY

parable / noun / PAIR-uh-bul

Definition
1: a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle
2: something (such as a news story or a series of real events) likened to a parable in providing an instructive example or lesson

Examples
"Contributions poured in from around the world. By mid-week, the Shepherds of Good Hope had received more than 12,000 individual donations. The story of the shelter might stand as a parable for the times."
— editorial, The Toronto Star, 4 Feb. 2022

The film, a satirical parable on the insidious ways in which privilege can unleash the prejudice within, centers on Ben, who thinks of himself as a liberal and enlightened gay man, living in the perfect apartment with his boyfriend Raz.
— Leo Barraclough, Variety, 8 Feb. 2022

Did You Know?
Parable comes to us via Anglo-French from the Late Latin word parabola, which in turn comes from Greek parabolē, meaning "comparison."
The word parabola may look familiar if you remember your geometry.
The mathematical parabola refers to a kind of comparison between a fixed point and a straight line, resulting in a parabolic curve; it came to English from New Latin (Latin as used since the end of the medieval period, especially in scientific description and classification).
Parable, however, descends from Late Latin (the Latin language used by writers in the 3rd to 6th centuries).
The Late Latin term parabola referred to verbal comparisons: it essentially meant "allegory" or "speech."
Other English descendants of Late Latin parabola are parole and palaver.