Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Tale \Tale\, v. i.
   To tell stories. [Obs.] --Chaucer. Gower.

Tale \Tale\, n.
   See {Tael}.

Tale \Tale\, n. [AS. talu number, speech, narrative; akin to D.
   taal speech, language, G. zahl number, OHG. zala, Icel. tal,
   tala, number, speech, Sw. tal, Dan. tal number, tale speech,
   Goth. talzjan to instruct. Cf. {Tell}, v. t., {Toll} a tax,
   also {Talk}, v. i.]
   1. That which is told; an oral relation or recital; any
      rehearsal of what has occured; narrative; discourse;
      statement; history; story. ``The tale of Troy divine.''
      --Milton. ``In such manner rime is Dante's tale.''
      --Chaucer.

            We spend our years as a tale that is told. --Ps. xc.
                                                  9.

   2. A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an
      enumeration; a count, in distinction from measure or
      weight; a number reckoned or stated.

            The ignorant, . . . who measure by tale, and not by
            weight.                               --Hooker.

            And every shepherd tells his tale, Under the
            hawthornn in the dale.                --Milton.

            In packing, they keep a just tale of the number.
                                                  --Carew.

   3. (Law) A count or declaration. [Obs.]

   {To tell tale of}, to make account of. [Obs.]

            Therefore little tale hath he told Of any dream, so
            holy was his heart.                   --Chaucer.

   Syn: Anecdote; story; fable; incident; memoir; relation;
        account; legend; narrative.

Source : WordNet®

tale
     n 1: 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; "his
          narrative was interesting"; "Disney's stories entertain
          adults as well as children" [syn: {narrative}, {narration},
           {story}]
     2: a trivial lie; "he told a fib about eating his spinach";
        "how can I stop my child from telling stories?" [syn: {fib},
         {story}, {tarradiddle}, {taradiddle}]

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

TALE
     
        Typed Applicative Language Experiment.  M. van Leeuwen.  Lazy,
        purely applicative, polymorphic.  Based on typed second order
        lambda-calculus.  "Functional Programming and the Language
        TALE", H.P. Barendregt et al, in Current Trends in
        Concurrency, LNCS 224, Springer 1986, pp.122-207.