tale

Meaning

Noun

1. A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
2. A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
3. (slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark or victim.
4. 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.
5. (obsolete) Number; tally; quota.
6. (obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
7. (obsolete) Speech; language.
8. (obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
9. (obsolete) A count; declaration.
10. (archaic, rare) A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
11. (archaic, rare) A report of any matter; a relation; a version.

Verb

1. (dialectal, obsolete) To speak; discourse; tell tales.
2. (Scotland, dialectal) To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.

Synonyms

story

narrative

legend

fable

account

fairy tale

narration

history

news

📰

myth

anecdote

yarn

🧶

fib

fiction

episode

report

happening

description

event

tell a story

occurrence

tarradiddle

taradiddle

recital

message

narrate

parable

proverb

recounting

relate

relation

relationship

riddle

saga

short story

song

🎶

speech

talk

🗣️

tell

theater

theatre

tittle-tattle

understanding

verb

version

word

romance

talebearing

tall tale

novelet

Translations

conte

Erzählung

cuento

Geschichte

racconto

histoire

Märchen

storia

récit

verhaal

vertelsel

historia

conto

favola

vertelling

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈteɪl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: tale

Inherited from Old English: talu

Cognate with Western Frisian: taal

Cognate with Dutch: taal

Cognate with German: Zahl

Cognate with Danish: tale

Cognate with Icelandic: tala

Cognate with Latin: dolus

Cognate with Ancient Greek: δόλος

Cognate with Albanian: ndjell

Cognate with Northern Kurdish: til

Cognate with Classical Armenian: տող

In summary

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.