tall tale
a difficult to believe story
TRANSLATION
tall tale = die Lügengeschichte --- GOOGLE INDEX tall tale: approximately 3,500,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The Ballad of Nessie is a whimsical and colourful TALL TALE about the friendly Loch Ness monster, Nessie, and how she and her best friend MacQuack the rubber duck came to live in the moor they now call home.
(BBC News)
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Climate change no TALL TALE for local fisherman
(www.onlineathens.com)
(BBC News)
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Climate change no TALL TALE for local fisherman
(www.onlineathens.com)
Did you
know?
tall tale
noun phrase
- a fanciful or greatly exaggerated story
(American Heritage Dictionary)
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A tall tale is a story that depicts the wild adventures of extravagantly exaggerated folk heroes. The tall tale is essentially an oral form of entertainment in which the audience appreciates the imaginative invention rather than the literal meaning of the stories. Tall tales were an integral part of the American frontier and explained the origins of lakes, mountains, and canyons, as well as "larger than life" heroes like Davy Crockett (he could shoot a pea off a mountaintop), the lumberjack Paul Bunyon (he was as big as an ox) and Johnny Appleseed (he planted apple trees from coast to coast).
One of the classic American tall tales is the legend of John Henry, who was born with a hammer in his hand. When he was older, he joined a railroad crew, the fastest in the land. One day, a steam drill challenged John Henry to a contest to see who could get through a mountain first to build a tunnel. So John Henry got two hammers and pounded away. Then the steam drill broke down. When John Henry broke through the side of the mountain his heart exploded, and he died with a hammer in each hand.
Of course, Europe has its own tall tale tradition, such as Baron Munchausen’s Narratives of His Marvelous Travels and Campaigns in Russia (1785). This collection includes such humorous tales as one about the soldier who loaded his rifle with a cherry pit, fired it into the head of a stag, and later found a cherry tree rooted in its head.
(source: Encyclopedia Britannica)
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SYNONYMS
farfetched story, cock-and-bull story, exaggeration, fable, fish story, flight of fancy, tall story, yarn
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Don't believe everything he says, he likes telling tall tales."
noun phrase
- a fanciful or greatly exaggerated story
(American Heritage Dictionary)
---
A tall tale is a story that depicts the wild adventures of extravagantly exaggerated folk heroes. The tall tale is essentially an oral form of entertainment in which the audience appreciates the imaginative invention rather than the literal meaning of the stories. Tall tales were an integral part of the American frontier and explained the origins of lakes, mountains, and canyons, as well as "larger than life" heroes like Davy Crockett (he could shoot a pea off a mountaintop), the lumberjack Paul Bunyon (he was as big as an ox) and Johnny Appleseed (he planted apple trees from coast to coast).
One of the classic American tall tales is the legend of John Henry, who was born with a hammer in his hand. When he was older, he joined a railroad crew, the fastest in the land. One day, a steam drill challenged John Henry to a contest to see who could get through a mountain first to build a tunnel. So John Henry got two hammers and pounded away. Then the steam drill broke down. When John Henry broke through the side of the mountain his heart exploded, and he died with a hammer in each hand.
Of course, Europe has its own tall tale tradition, such as Baron Munchausen’s Narratives of His Marvelous Travels and Campaigns in Russia (1785). This collection includes such humorous tales as one about the soldier who loaded his rifle with a cherry pit, fired it into the head of a stag, and later found a cherry tree rooted in its head.
(source: Encyclopedia Britannica)
---
SYNONYMS
farfetched story, cock-and-bull story, exaggeration, fable, fish story, flight of fancy, tall story, yarn
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Don't believe everything he says, he likes telling tall tales."
