• IPA: /ˈteɪl/

From Middle English tale, from Old English talu, from Proto-West Germanic *talu, from Proto-Germanic *talō, from Proto-Indo-European *del-.

Cognate with Western Frisian taal, Dutch taal, German Zahl, Danish tale, Icelandic tala, Latin dolus, Ancient Greek δόλος, Albanian ndjell, kmr til, xcl տող. Related to tell, talk.

tale (plural tales)

1. A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.

   the Canterbury Tales

2. A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
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.
6. (obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
7. (obsolete) Speech; language.
8. (obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
9. (legal, 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.

• French: conte
• German: Märchen fairy tale, Sage, Geschichte, Erzählung
• Italian: racconto, favola, fiaba, storia, storiella
• Portuguese: conto, história, fábula
• Russian: расска́з
• Spanish: cuento, historia

From Middle English talen, from Old English talian, from Proto-West Germanic *talōn, from Proto-Germanic *talōną, from Proto-Indo-European *del-.

Cognate with German zählen, Swedish tala, Icelandic tala.

tale (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.

tale (plural tales)

1. Alternative form of tael