Definition
nounA rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
nounA number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
Sentence Examples
The tale is familiar to us.
The little girl was absorbed in reading a fairy tale.
It's a stirring tale of heroic deeds.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale."
— 1631, John Milton, L'Allegro:
"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:
"the ignorant, […] who measure by tale, and not by weight"
— 1594, 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: