Meaning

noun a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program

noun a trivial lie

originFrom 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,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0