tale

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈteɪl/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• 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-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.

Noun

tale (plural tales)

1. 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.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 214:

     But can you guess what there was in the box? Why, it was a calf's tail, and if the calf's tail had been longer this tale would have been longer too.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:

     Barla Von: What's this? One of the Earth-clan? Ah, a very famous one, yes? You are the one called Shepard.
     Barla Von: The tale of how you survived the great tragedy on Akuze is truly remarkable. I am amazed each time I hear it.

2. 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

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.

   Don't tell tales!

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “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. […]”

5. (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.

   • 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.

   • 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 1, page 237:

     To appease the angry god, two hundred children of the noblest families were picked out for sacrifice, and the tale of victims was swelled by not less than three hundred more who volunteered to die for the fatherland.

6. (obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
7. (obsolete) Speech; language.
8. (obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
9. (law, obsolete) A count; declaration.
10. (rare or archaic) A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
11. (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.

Derived terms

Translations

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

• taler

Etymology 3

Noun

tale (plural tales)

1. Alternative form of tael

See also

• pourquoi tale

Anagrams

• EATL, ETLA, Elta, LATE, TEAL, TEAl, Teal, et al, et al., late, leat, tael, teal, tela

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɑːlə/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tale

1. plural of taal

Azerbaijani

Etymology

From Arabic طَالِع (ṭāliʕ).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: ta‧le

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tale (usually uncountable, definite accusative taleyi)

1. fate, destiny, lot

   Synonyms: qismət, müqəddərat, qədər

   Onların sonraki taleyi məlum deyil. ― Their subsequent fate is unknown.

2. fortune (destiny, especially favorable)

   Synonyms: bəxt, iqbal, nəsib

3. future destiny

   Synonyms: gələcək, müqəddərat

Declension

Derived terms

• taleyüklü (“fateful”)

Further reading

• “tale” in Obastan.com.

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse tala.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

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. to speak, talk

Conjugation

Further reading

• “tale” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaː.lə/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ta‧le

Noun

tale f (plural talen, diminutive taaltje n)

1. Obsolete form of taal.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tal/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

tale

1. inflection of taler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

• étal

Ido

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtale/

Adverb

tale

1. hence

Italian

Etymology

From Latin tālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈta.le/
• Rhymes: -ale
• Hyphenation: tà‧le

Determiner

tale (plural tali)

1. such

Related terms

Anagrams

• alte, late, tela

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtaː.le/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈta.le/,

Adjective

tāle

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of tālis

Noun

tāle

1. vocative singular of tālus

References

• tale in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Limburgish

Noun

tale

1. plural of taal

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch *tala, from Proto-West Germanic *talu, 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
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “tale (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

Middle English

Alternative forms

• tal, talle
• taile, taille (chiefly Northern ME)

Etymology

From Old English talu, from Proto-West Germanic *talu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaːl(ə)/, /ˈtal(ə)/

Noun

tale (plural tales)

1. personal narrative, account

Related terms

• nyghtertale

Descendants

• English: tale
• Scots: tale
• Yola: taale

References

• “tā̆le, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Northern Kurdish

Noun

tale ?

1. happiness

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

• “tale” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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 (tala is split-infinitive and/or a-infinitive verb form)

Derived terms

References

• “tale” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Verb

tale

1. inflection of talar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

Pronoun

tale

1. feminine plural of tău

   Fiicele tale îmi spuneau despre casa voastră nouă.

   Your daughters were telling me about your new house.

2. neuter plural of tău

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtale/
• Rhymes: -ale
• Syllabification: ta‧le

Verb

tale

1. inflection of talar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Ternate

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Verb

tale

1. to carry weight

Conjugation

References

• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001) A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh