tale

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A story, especially one about exciting or imaginary events.

   Grandma told us a tale about a brave knight.

2. 2
   noun

   An account or report of something that has happened.

   He told us the whole tale of his journey.

3. 3
   noun

   A piece of gossip or an untrue story used to cause trouble.

   Don't believe the tales people tell about her.

Common collocations

• fairy tale Noun + noun

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 t…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images