Novella

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /nəˈvɛlə/

Definitions

1. A prose narrative work of fiction that is longer than a short story but shorter than a full-length novel
2. A fictional prose narrative intermediate in length between a short story and a novel
3. A moderately lengthy work of prose fiction that exceeds typical short story bounds but remains briefer than conventional novels

Etymology: The most striking thing about "novella" is that it is a twin of "novel," the two words descending from the same Latin source yet arriving in English by different routes. "Novel" entered English through Old French, while "novella" was borrowed directly from Italian, and the Italian word itself came from Latin "novella," the neuter plural of "novellus," meaning "new" or "young." Latin used "novella" for fresh things, so the word carried the sense of news and innovation long before it named a kind of story. In Italian, "novella" came to mean a short tale, and the most famous examples are the stories in Boccaccio's "Decameron," which Italians called "novelle." Because these tales were brief and pointed, the Italian word settled on a particular scale of narrative, shorter than a full romance but longer than an anecdote. English borrowed the term to name that middle ground. The word therefore holds a neat division of labour with "novel": the older form took the broad, sprawling sense, while the Italian import was kept for works that sit between the story and the book.

Synonyms: short story, tale, narrative, fable, fiction

Antonyms: novel, nonfiction