“Tell-tale” is not a commonly used American word, I have been told. When I asked an American, he said it was a word in a well-known story, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” He asked me why “Tale” is capitalized by Poe, and I have no idea. It is a hyphenated word, not two words. But the word describes a tale-bearer and, in this case, one that reveals information.
The 1843 work starts by describing the murder of an innocent old man. Because the motive is not given, the reader gets the idea that the guilty person has some kind of homicidal mania and the crime is the result of his nervousness. But the man does not die, or at le
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