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.
A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
the Canterbury Tales
And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale.1631, John Milton, L'Allegro:
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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.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 214:
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.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:
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A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
the ignorant, […] who measure by tale, and not by weight1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book I, Preface, §4:
In packing, they keep a just tale of the number that every hogshead containeth ...1602, Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall:
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They proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 5, Twelfth Century:
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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!
“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.[…]”1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
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.1611, King James Version, Exodus 5:8:
Both number twice a day the milky dams And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil, Pastoral III:
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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.1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 1, page 237:
Archaic, Rare A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
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Archaic, Rare A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
[…] birds […] are aptest by their voice to tell tales what they find; and likewise by the motion of their flight to express the same.1605, Francis Bacon, Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human, Volume I, Chapter IX:
Etymology 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”).