tale
/ˈteɪl/ noun, verb
Forms tales taling taled
- noun A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story. “the Canterbury Tales”
- noun A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
- noun (slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark or victim.
- noun 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. “Don't tell tales!”
- noun (obsolete) Number; tally; quota.
- noun (obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
- noun (obsolete) Speech; language.
- noun (obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
- verb (dialectal or obsolete) To speak; discourse; tell tales.
- verb (dialectal, chiefly Scotland) To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English tale, from Old English talu (“tale, series, calculation”), from Proto-West Germanic *talu, from Proto-Germanic *talō (“calculation, number”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to reckon, count”).
Cognate with West Frisian taal (“speech, language”), 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 δόλος (dólos, “wile, bait”), Albanian ndjell (“to lure”), Northern Kurdish til (“finger”), Old Armenian տող (toł, “row”). Related to tell, talk.
From Middle English talen, from Old English talian (“to count, calculate, reckon”), from Proto-West Germanic *talōn, from Proto-Germanic *talōną (“to count”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to count, reckon, aim, calculate, adjust”).
Cognate with Dutch talen (“to long, care”), German zahlen (“to pay”), Swedish tala (“to speak, talk”), Icelandic tala (“to talk”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun See Tael.
- noun That which is told; an oral relation or recital; any rehearsal of what has occured; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
- noun A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration; a count, in distinction from measure or weight; a number reckoned or stated.
- verb To tell stories. [Obs.] Chaucer. Gower.
Etymology [AS. talu number, speech, narrative; akin to D. taal speech, language, G. zahl number, OHG. zala, Icel. tal, tala, number, speech, Sw. tal, Dan. tal number, tale speech, Goth. talzjan to instruct. Cf. Tell, v. t., Toll a tax, also Talk, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tale”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details