tall
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɔːl/
ipa: [tʰoːɫ]
ipa: /taːl/
ipa: /tɔl/
ipa: /tɑl/
rhymes: -ɔːl
Forms: form: taller
form: tallest
Etymology: From Middle English tall, talle, tal (“seemly, becoming, handsome, good-looking, excellent, good, valiant, lively in speech, bold, great, large, big”), from Old English *tæl, ġetæl (“swift, ready, having mastery of”), from Proto-Germanic *talaz (“submissive, pliable, obedient”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol-, *del- (“to aim, calculate, adjust, reckon”).
Cognate with Scots tal (“high, lofty, tall”), Old Frisian tel (“swift”), Old Saxon gital (“quick”), Old High German gizal (“active, agile”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌰𐌻𐍃 (untals, “indocile, disobedient”).
The Oxford English Dictionary notes: "The sense development [of tall] is remarkable, but is paralleled more or less by that of other adjectives expressing estimation, such as buxom, canny, clean, clever, cunning, deft, elegant, handsome, pretty, proper; German klein, as compared with English clean, presents the antithesis to modern tall as compared to tall in early Middle English. It has been conjectured that in the sense 'high of stature' it is a different word, adopted from the Welsh tal in some sense; but the latter is, according to Professor Rhŷs, merely a 16th-century borrowing of the English word (in Owen Pughe's Dictionary erroneously mixed up with the genuine Welsh word tal (“end, brow, forehead”), with which it has no possible connection.)"
Senses: examples: text: Being tall is an advantage in basketball.
text: Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps,[…], and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: He′d been packed in with all the other journos, standing out only in that he was taller than most and didn′t make as much noise.
ref: 2000, Robert Bingham, Lightning on the Sun, page 34:
antonyms: short
glosses: Having a vertical extent greater than the average. For example, somebody with a height of over 6 feet would generally be considered to be tall.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: Tall trees, at least about 30m high.
text: To him it seemed that the Bornean rainforests, the tallest on Earth, were places that had: 'remained untouched and unchanged since remote geological epochs[.]'
ref: 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 55:
synonyms: high
antonyms: low
low-rise
short
glosses: Having its top a long way up; having a great vertical (and often greater than horizontal) extent.
raw_tags: of a building
examples: text: "That's tall talk."
"Not an inch taller than the truth."
ref: 1870, The Cornhill Magazine, volume 21, page 9:
glosses: Hard to believe, such as a tall story or a tall tale.
raw_tags: of a story
coordinate_terms: grande
venti
glosses: Smaller than grande, usually 8 ounces (~ 230 ml).
raw_tags: of a cup of coffee
glosses: Obsequious; obedient.
glosses: Seemly; suitable; fitting, becoming, comely; attractive, handsome.
glosses: Bold; brave; courageous; valiant.
glosses: Fine; proper; admirable; great; excellent.
Synonyms: word: elevated
word: eminent
word: exalted
word: high
word: lofty
word: tall
Hypernyms: word: long
Hyponyms: word: cloudcapt
word: giant
word: mountainous
word: Patagonian
word: sky-high
word: skyscraping
word: statuesque
word: soaring
word: topless
word: towering
word: gangly
word: lanky
word: reedy
Derived terms: big and tall
cut down the tall poppy
feel eight feet tall
feel nine feet tall
feel ten feet tall
feel twelve feet tall
mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails
plain tall
ride tall in the saddle
stand tall
tall bluestem
tall-case clock
tall, dark and handsome
tall drink
tall drink of water
tall fescue
tall glass of water
tall in the saddle
tall man
tall meadowrue
tall nightshade
tall oaks from little acorns grow
tall oil
tall one
tall order
tall pawn
tall pocosin
tall poppy
tall poppy syndrome
tall reed
tall ship
tall story
tall tale
tall thistle
walk tall