tale

See also: talé, Tale, and tåle

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈteɪl/
  • Rhymes: -eɪl
  • Homophone: tail

Etymology 1

From Middle English tale, from Old English talu (“tale, series, calculation, list, statement, deposition, relation, communication, narrative, fable, story, accusation, action at law”), 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 dalloj (“to distinguish, tell”), Kurdish til (“finger”), Old Armenian տող (toł, “row”). Related to tell, talk.

Noun

tale (plural tales)

  1. (obsolete) Number; tally; quota.
    • 1611, King James Version, Exodus 5:8:
      And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
  2. (obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
  3. (obsolete) Speech; language.
  4. (obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
  5. (law, obsolete) A count; declaration.
  6. (rare or archaic) Numbering; enumeration; reckoning; account; count.
    • 1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil, Pastoral III:
      Both number twice a day the milky dams
      And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.
  7. (rare or archaic) A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
  8. (rare or archaic) A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
    • 1605, Francis Bacon, Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human, Volume I, Chapter IX:
      ... birds ... are aptest by their voice to tell tales what they find; and likewise by the motion of their flight to express the same.
  9. 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, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      “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. […]”
    Don't tell tales!
  10. A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
    the Canterbury Tales
    • 1631, John Milton, "L'Allegro":
      And every shepherd tells his tale
      Under the hawthorn in the dale.
  11. A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
    • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book I, Preface, §4:
      the ignorant, […] who measure by tale, and not by weight
    • 1602, Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall
      In packing, they keep a just tale of the number that every hogshead containeth ...
    • 1843 Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 5, Twelfth Century
      They proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure
  12. (slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark (sense 3.3) of a confidence game.
Derived terms
Translations
type of story

Etymology 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 *talōną (“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”).

Verb

tale (third-person singular simple present tales, present participle taling, simple past and past participle taled)

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

Etymology 3

Noun

tale (plural tales)

  1. Alternative form of tael

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tɑːlə/

Noun

tale

  1. plural of taal

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse tala

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /taːlə/, [ˈtˢæːlə]

Noun

tale c (singular definite talen, plural indefinite taler)

  1. speech, talk, address, discourse

Inflection

Verb

tale (imperative tal, infinitive at tale, present tense taler, past tense talte, perfect tense har talt)

  1. To make a speech
  2. speak, talk

French

Verb

tale

  1. first-person singular present indicative of taler
  2. third-person singular present indicative of taler
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of taler
  4. first-person singular present subjunctive of taler
  5. second-person singular imperative of taler

Anagrams

Ido

Adverb

tale

  1. hence

Italian

Etymology

From Latin tālis.

Adjective

tale (masculine and feminine plural tali)

  1. such

Anagrams

Kurdish

Noun

tale ?

  1. happiness

Latin

Adjective

tāle

  1. nominative neuter singular of tālis
  2. accusative neuter singular of tālis
  3. vocative neuter singular of tālis

Noun

tāle

  1. vocative singular of tālus

References

Limburgish

Noun

tale f

  1. languages

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch *tala, from Proto-Germanic *talō.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtaːlə/

Noun

tāle f

  1. spoken or written words, that which someone says
  2. language

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

Further reading

  • “tale (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
  • “tale (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse tala.

Noun

tale m (definite singular talen, indefinite plural taler, definite plural talene)

  1. speech, talk, address, discourse

Derived terms

Verb

tale (imperative tal, present tense taler, passive tales, simple past talte, past participle talt, present participle talende)

  1. to make a speech
  2. to speak, talk

Derived terms

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse tala

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /²tɑːlə/

Noun

tale m (definite singular talen, indefinite plural talar, definite plural talane)
tale f (definite singular tala, indefinite plural taler, definite plural talene)

  1. speech
  2. a speech, talk, discourse, an address

Derived terms

Verb

tale (present tense talar or taler, past tense tala or talte, past participle tala or talt, passive infinitive talast, present participle talande, imperative tal)

  1. alternative form of tala

Derived terms

References

Romanian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈta.le]

Pronoun

tale

  1. feminine plural form of tău
    fiicele tale îmi spuneau despre casa voastră nouă
    your daughters were telling me about your new house.
  2. neuter plural form of tău

Spanish

Verb

tale

  1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of talar.
  2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of talar.
  3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of talar.
  4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of talar.
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