Word.ws English Dictionary

bispel

bispel noun: a proverb or parable.

Noun

bispel (plural not attested)

  1. (no plural, rare) A proverb or parable.
    • Helmut de Boor offers a similarly narrow definition of the nature of morals to be drawn from fables. Opposing "bispel" and fable he sums up the differences as regards this aspect: "The bispel aims at cognition, the fable gives practical knowledge, and in so far as an educational aim is involved the...1983, Marianne Powell, Fabula Docet
    • Such episodes and events were used to illustrate and justify more general or abstract 'philosophical' statements in much the same way as exempla or bispel 'edifying illustrative stories' were used in medieval sermons. And just as we have collections of exempla and bispel from medieval times onwards...1998, Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 7

Examples of bispel in a sentence

  • And just as we have collections of exempla and bispel from medieval times onwards in Europe, [...]1998, Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 7:
  • In adopting the bipartite structure, then, the Phoenix-poet demonstrates that this poem is a 'two-fold story,' a bispel.2008, Janie Steen, Verse and Virtuosity:

Origin of bispel

From Middle English bispel, from Old English bīspel, biġspel (“proverb, parable, example, story”), from bī- (“by”) + spel (“talk, story”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Biespil (“example”), Middle Dutch bijspel (“proverb, parable”), German Low German Bispeel (“example”), German Beispiel (“example”). More at byspel, by-, spell.

Questions about bispel

What does bispel mean?
Bispel means a proverb or parable.
How do you use bispel in a sentence?
And just as we have collections of exempla and bispel from medieval times onwards in Europe, [...]
What part of speech is bispel?
Bispel is a noun.

Words near bispel in the dictionary

  1. bispecifics
  2. bispectra
  3. bispectral
  4. bispectrality
  5. bispectrum
  6. bispel
  7. bispeptide
  8. bispeptides
  9. bisperoxovanadate
  10. bisperoxovanadates
  11. bisperoxovanadium

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bispel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bispel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bispel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.