tale

Meaning

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. A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
11. A report of any matter; a relation; a version.

story

tell a story

novelet

short-story

declare

fairy story

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈteɪl/

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.