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tell

verb
/tʰɔː//tɛl/US

Etymology

From Middle English tellen (“to count, tell”), from Old English tellan (“to count, tell”), from Proto-West Germanic *talljan, from Proto-Germanic *taljaną, *talzijaną (“to count, enumerate”), from Proto-Germanic *talą, *talō (“number, counting”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian tälle (“to say; tell”), West Frisian telle (“to count”), West Frisian fertelle (“to tell, narrate”), Dutch tellen (“to count”) and Dutch vertellen (“to tell”), Low German tellen (“to count”), German zählen, Faroese telja. More at tale.

  1. derived from *dol-✻ — “calculation, fraud”
  2. derived from *talą✻
  3. inherited from *taljaną✻
  4. inherited from *talljan✻
  5. inherited from tellan — “to count, tell”
  6. inherited from tellen — “to count, tell”

Definitions

  1. Mental senses related to determining, reckoning, or perceiving

    • All told, there were over a dozen.  Can you tell time on a clock?  He had untold wealth.
    • And in his lap a masse of coyne he told, And turned vpsidowne, to feede his eye A couetous desire with his huge threasury.
    • Well fare the Arabians, who so richly pay The things they traffic for with wedge of gold, Whereof a man may easily in a day Tell that which may maintain him all his life.

  2. Social senses of communicating

    • I want to tell a story;  I want to tell you a story.
    • “[…]Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. Oh, dear, there's so much to tell you, so many warnings to give you, but all that must be postponed for the moment.”

  3. Abstract senses related to showing or revealing

    • Cherry looks old, Mergenthaler told himself. His age is telling. Querulous — that's the word. He's become a whining, querulous old man absorbed with trivialities.
  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often…

      A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold.

    2. A giveaway

      A giveaway; something that unintentionally reveals or hints at a secret.

      • Those whose business it is to verify luxury bags insist, at least publicly, that there’s always a “tell” to a superfake.

    3. That which is told

      That which is told; a tale or account.

      • April 4, 1743, Horace Walpole, letter to Sir Horace Mann I am at the end of my tell.

    4. A private message to an individual in a chat room

      A private message to an individual in a chat room; a whisper.

    5. A hill or mound, originally and especially in the Middle East, over or consisting of the…

      A hill or mound, originally and especially in the Middle East, over or consisting of the ruins of ancient settlements.

      • Succoth is now associated with a large tell situated in the Jordan Valley, Deir Allah.

    6. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

a little bird told me, all told, as far as one can tell, betell, can you tell us, dead men can tell no tales, dead men tell no tales, does Macy's tell Gimbel's, don't pee in the wind and tell me it's raining, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining, don't piss in the wind and tell me it's raining, don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining, don't tell me, do tell, foretell, forthtell, fortune-tell, go tell your mother she wants you, hear tell, hiss-and-tell, I can tell you, I'll tell you, I'll tell you what, I'm not telling you, I'm telling a lie, I tell a lie, I'm telling you, I tell you, I tell you what, keep telling yourself that, kiss-and-tell, kiss and tell, let me tell you, live to tell the tale, mistell, no-tell hotel, no-tell motel, now you tell me, only time will tell, piss on someone's leg and tell them it's raining · +61 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at tell. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01tell02abstract03publication04printed05written06writing07article08speech09speak10say

A definitional loop anchored at tell. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at tell

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA