legendary = believe it (verificatory) or not (fabulatory)

[Victor Steinbok]

Also note the distribution--and meaning--of "something of a legend", as
it became more frequent and evolved over the years.

     VS-)

On 2/16/2010 1:52 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> "Legends, in the most technical sense, are a branch of folklore
> relating to a sacred person, place, or incident."
>
> Allan Nevins, _The Gateway to History_, 1963 ed. (but probably not
> much revised since 1938), p. 80.
>
> Nevins follows this sentence with a footnote:
>
> "For Henri Bergson's classic distinction between the _fabulatory_
> function and the _verificatory_ function, see R. Klebansky, ed.,
> _Philosophy and History_, pp. 27 ff."
>
> And then p. 81:
>
> "But in the popular sense 'legend' of course has a much broader
> significance. It refers to any narrative which pretends to be
> historical, but which is actually traditional and imaginative in character."
>
> PS:  Fabulatory not in OED; verificatory postdates OED2 -1875.
>
> Joel
>

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