tale

views updated May 21 2018

tale / tāl/ • n. 1. a fictitious or true narrative or story, esp. one that is imaginatively recounted. ∎  a lie.2. archaic a number or total: an exact tale of the dead bodies.PHRASES: tell talessee tell1 .

tale

views updated May 29 2018

tale a tale never loses in the telling proverbial saying, mid 16th century, implying that a story is often exaggerated when it is repeated.
a tale of a tub an apocryphal story; mid 16th century. The phrase was used as the title of a comedy (1633) by Ben Jonson, and then in 1696 (published 1704) as the title of a prose satire by Swift; the allusion was to Hobbes's Leviathan and its criticism of contemporary religion and government.

See also old wives' tale, tales.

tale

views updated May 11 2018

tale
A. †talk, discourse OE.; what is told, story, narrative XI;

B. reckoning, number XII. OE. talu = OS. tala (Du. taal speech), OHG. zala (G. zahlnumber), ON. tala talk, tale, number :- Gmc. *talō, f. *tal-, as in *taljan TELL. Sense B was prob. from ON.

Tale

views updated May 21 2018

Tale

a number of things; a list or series; a tally or total.

Examples : an exact tale of the dead bodies, 1722; tale of fair children, 1864; goodly tale of folios, 1826; of lambs (the total number), 1697; tale of oysters (quantity by which they are sold), 1594; of good works, 1732.

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