tale

• enPR: tāl, IPA^(key): /ˈteːl/
• (pane–pain merger) IPA^(key): /ˈteɪl/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -eɪl
  • Homophone: tail

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.

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.

From Middle English talen, from Old English talian (“to count, calculate, reckon”), from Proto-West Germanic *talōn, from Proto-Germanic *talōną (“to count”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to count, reckon, aim, calculate, adjust”).

Cognate with Dutch talen (“to long, care”), German zahlen (“to pay”), Swedish tala (“to speak, talk”), Icelandic tala (“to talk”).

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.

• taler

tale (plural tales)

1. Alternative form of tael.

• pourquoi tale

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

• IPA^(key): /tɑːlə/

• Audio:

  (file)

tale

1. plural of taal

From Arabic طَالِع (ṭāliʕ).

• IPA^(key): [tɑːˈle(h)]
• Hyphenation: ta‧le

• Audio:

  (file)

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

• taleyüklü (“fateful”)

• “tale” in Obastan.com.

From Old Norse tala.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtˢæːlə]

tale c (singular definite talen, plural indefinite taler)

1. speech, talk, address, discourse

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

• “tale” in Den Danske Ordbog

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaː.lə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ta‧le

tale f (plural talen, diminutive taaltje n)

1. obsolete form of taal

• IPA^(key): /tal/

• Audio:

  (file)

tale

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

• étal

• IPA^(key): /ˈtale/

tale

1. hence

From Latin tālis.

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

tale m or f (plural tali)

1. such

• alte, late, tela

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtaː.ɫɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈt̪aː.le]

tāle

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of tālis

tāle m

1. vocative singular of tālus

• "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)

tale

1. plural of taal

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaːlə/

tāle f

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

• “tale (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “tale (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

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

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaːl(ə)/, /ˈtal(ə)/

tale (plural tales)

1. personal narrative, account

• nyghtertale

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

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

tale ?

1. happiness

From Old Norse tala.

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

1. speech, talk, address, discourse

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

• “tale” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse tala.

• IPA^(key): /²tɑːlə/

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

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)

• “tale” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑ.le/

tale

1. inflection of talu:
   1. nominative plural
   2. accusative singular/plural
   3. genitive/dative singular

tale

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

• IPA^(key): [ˈta.le]

• Audio:

  (file)

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

tale

1. (proximal demonstrative) this, this one

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

tale

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

• IPA^(key): [ˈta.le]

tale

1. to carry weight

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