fabulist

The word 'fabulist' is built directly upon the Latin noun fabula, which itself derives from the verb fari, meaning 'to speak'. This verb traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root bha-, meaning 'to speak, tell, say'. The suffix '-ist', indicating a person devoted to a specific activity, entered English via Latin from Greek '-istes'. Therefore, a fabulist is literally 'a speaker or teller of stories'. Over time, because fables are fictional narratives, the term acquired a secondary, pejorative sense of a person who tells falsehoods or elaborate lies, connecting the ancient act of storytelling to the modern concept of deceitful invention.

Structure: fabul (story, fable) + ist (person who practices) fabul (from Latin fabula, meaning 'story, tale, fable'); ist (a suffix of Greek origin via Latin, denoting an agent or person associated with a practice).