tell [OE] In Old English tell meant ‘to count’, a sense that is still seen in the term teller [ME] for a bank official. The meaning ‘to disclose, reveal’ does not appear until medieval times. To tell tales out of school [M17th] is to gossip or reveal secrets about the wrongdoing or faults of someone else. In Old English untold meant ‘not counted, unspecified’. In Late Middle English this became ‘not able to be counted’ (untold suffering). See also marine, talk.