Tale
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈteɪl/
- Rhymes: -eɪl
- Homophones: tail
Origin 1
From Middle English, from Old English talu ("tale, series, calculation, list, statement, deposition, relation, communication, narrative, fable, story, accusation, action at law"), from Proto-Germanic *talŠ("calculation, number"), from Proto-Indo-European *del- ("to reckon, count"). Cognate with Dutch taal ("language, speech"), German Zahl ("number, figure"), Danish tale ("speech"), Icelandic tala ("speech, talk, discourse, number, figure"), Latin dolus ("guile, deceit, fraud"), Ancient Greek (dólos, "wile, bait"), Albanian dalloj ("to distinguish, tell"), Kurdish til ("finger"), Old Armenian տող (toł, "row"). Related to tell, talk.
Full definition of tale
Noun
tale
(plural tales)- (obsolete) Number.
- (obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
- (obsolete) Speech; language.
- (obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
- (legal, obsolete) A count; declaration.
- (rare or archaic) Numbering; enumeration; reckoning; account; count.
- John DrydenBoth number twice a day the milky dams; And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.
- (rare or archaic) A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
- (rare or archaic) A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
- An account of an asserted fact or circumstance; a rumour; a report, especially an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 7, “A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. …â€
- Don't tell tales!
- A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.the Canterbury Tales
- A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
- Hookerthe ignorant, ... who measure by tale, and not by weight
- MiltonAnd every shepherd tells his tale,
Under the hawthorn in the dale. - CarewIn packing, they keep a just tale of the number.
- 1843 Thomas Carlyle, , book 2, ch. 5, Twelfth CenturyThey proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure
- (slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark (sense 3.3) of a confidence game.
Derived terms
Origin 2
From Middle English talen, from Old English talian ("to count, calculate, reckon, account, consider, think, esteem, value, argue, tell, relate, impute, assign"), from Proto-Germanic *talÅnÄ… ("to count"), from Proto-Indo-European *del- ("to count, reckon, aim, calculate, adjust"). Cognate with German zählen ("to count, number, reckon"), Swedish tala ("to speak, talk"), Icelandic tala ("to talk").