A few days ago
neoking3d

Could someone explain “spun so many tales”?

Could someone explain to me what this means:

“You’ve spun so many tales it’s hard to keep track”?

Forgive me for my ignorance my friends- but English is my 3-rd language. I speak English very well; however, I sometimes have difficulty understanding idioms like this one: I don’t understand the “spun so many tales”!

I kind of understand it but I’m not sure. “Spun” comes from “spin” >> which means to turn, rotate, gyrate something. The “so many” in my opinion means: “done something many times”.

“Tales” in my opinion means the –the main subject that is not written –but applied.

“Tales” is the topic or main idea for what the conversation takes place.

So, in my opinion the “spun so many tales” means: You have done “it” so many times, which “it” in this case is the main idea of the conversation or dialogue.

So my conclusion is: “you have done-what you have done for many times”, repeat-ably.

I would like to give to all of you the points but I will try to understand who is going to provide me the best information and explanation of this idiom.

I Thank All of You for Your Time and Effort.

Top 3 Answers
A few days ago
ella j

Favorite Answer

I think it’s actually derived from the fairy tale of Rumpelstilskin.

n order to make himself appear more important, a miller lied to the king that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king called for the girl, shut her in a tower room with straw and a spinning wheel, and demanded that she spin the straw into gold by morning, for three nights, or be executed (some versions say she would be locked up in the dungeon to die). She had given up all hope, when a dwarf appeared in the room and spun straw into gold for her in return for her lamb necklace; then again the following night for her ring. On the third night, when she had nothing with which to reward him, the strange creature spun straw into gold for a promise that the girl’s first-born child would become his.

The king was so impressed that he let the miller’s daughter marry his son, the prince, but when their first child was born, the dwarf returned to claim his payment: “Now give me what you promised”. The queen was frightened and offered him all the wealth she had if she could keep the child. The dwarf refused but finally agreed to give up his claim to the child if the queen could guess his name in three days. At first she failed, but before the second night, her messenger overheard the dwarf hopping about his fire and singing:

“Today I bake, tomorrow I brew,

Today for one

Tomorrow for two

Little knows my royal dame

Rumpelstiltskin is my name”

When the dwarf came to the queen on the third day and she revealed his name, Rumpelstiltskin lost his bargain.

Its this spinning of straw into gold which in itself is impossible. So ‘spun so many tales’ means trying to make up things (LIES) .Saying so many lies that nothing is believable or is confused about what to believe.

Definitely about telling a heap of lies!!

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A few days ago
crkrjx
you used good deductive reasoning but slang is always hard to interpret… spun so many tales means “told so many stories” in the context of “you’ve spun so many tales it’s hard to keep track” it could also be a nice way of saying “you’ve told so many lies it’s hard to keep track”
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A few days ago
Anonymous
I think it means that you have told stories or lies so many times, it’s hard to keep track of what is true and what is false.
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