tale
pronunciation
How to pronounce tale in British English:
UK [teɪl]
How to pronounce tale in American English:
US [teɪl]
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- Noun:
- a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
- a trivial lie
Word Origin
- tale
- tale: [OE] A tale is etymologically something that is ‘told’. The word is descended from a prehistoric Germanic *talō, a derivative of the base *tal-, which also produced English talk and tell. Of its Germanic relatives, German zahl, Dutch getal, Swedish antal, and Danish tal all mean ‘number’, reflecting a secondary meaning ‘reckoning, enumeration’ which once existed in English, perhaps as an introduction from Old Norse (it survives in the related teller ‘counter of votes’ and all told).=> talk, tell
- tale (n.)
- Old English talu "series, calculation," also "story, tale, statement, deposition, narrative, fable, accusation, action of telling," from Proto-Germanic *talo (cognates: Dutch taal "speech, language," Danish tale "speech, talk, discourse," German Erzählung "story," Gothic talzjan "to teach"), from PIE root *del- (2) "to recount, count." The secondary Modern English sense of "number, numerical reckoning" (c. 1200) probably was the primary one in Germanic; see tell (v.), teller and Old Frisian tale, Middle Dutch tal, Old Saxon tala, Danish tal, Old High German zala, German Zahl "number." The ground sense of the Modern English word in its main meaning, then, might have been "an account of things in their due order." Related to talk (v.) and tell (v.). Meaning "things divulged that were given secretly, gossip" is from mid-14c.; first record of talebearer "tattletale" is late 15c.
Example
- 1. But that is still a tale worth telling .
- 2. A fantastic tale of adventure .
- 3. Every item has a tale .
- 4. And therein hangs a tale .
- 5. The guardian tells the grim tale .