tale

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

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.

tale (plural tales)

1. 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!

2. 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.

3. 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

4. (slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark or victim.
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.

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, 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”).

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

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

• IPA^(key): /tɑːlə/

tale

1. plural of taal

From Old Norse tala

• IPA^(key): /taːlə/, [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. speak, talk

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

• étal

tale

1. hence

From Latin tālis.

tale (masculine and feminine plural tali)

1. such

• talaltro
• talché
• talmente
• talora
• taluno

• alte, tela, late

tale ?

1. happiness

tāle

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

tāle

1. vocative singular of tālus

• tale in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)

tale f

1. languages

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaːlə/

tāle f

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

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: taal
  • Afrikaans: taal
• West Flemish: toale

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

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

• overtale

• “tale” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): [ˈta.le]

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. 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.