I really, really hate it when people use the word "tale" when all they mean is "story." I think in part because it leads to unnecessarily frou-frou constructions such as, "It tells quite a tale." But really I'm not sure why it pisses me off so much. Your thoughts?
it makes me think of coover saying myth=sacred, tale=profane... i tend to just say text, tho--it's more broad.
ReplyDeleteIt's annoying for me too, I think because it cutesifies the act of talking about stories. See also: yarn.
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends almost hemorrhaged in annoyance when our school paper reviewed a long book and called it a "tome."
I'm less annoyed when musicians call a song a tune, but it might come from the same sort of place.