tame

See also: Tame and tamë

English

Dogs and sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /teɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪm
• Homophone: Thame

Etymology 1

From Middle English tame, tome, weak inflection forms of Middle English tam, tom, from Old English tam, tom (“domesticated, tame”), from Proto-Germanic *tamaz (“brought into the home, tame”), from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (“to build; home”). Cognate with Scots tam, tame (“tame”), Saterland Frisian tom (“tame”), West Frisian tam (“tame”), Dutch tam (“tame”), Low German Low German tamm, tahm (“tame”), German zahm (“tame”), Swedish tam (“tame”), Icelandic tamur (“tame”).

Adjective

tame (comparative tamer, superlative tamest)

1. Not or no longer wild; domesticated

   Antonym: wild

   They have a tame wildcat.

2. (chiefly of animals) Mild and well-behaved; accustomed to human contact

   Synonym: gentle

   The lion was quite tame.

3. Not exciting

   Synonyms: dull, insipid

   Antonym: exciting

   This party is too tame for me.

   For a thriller, that film was really tame.

   • 2015 February 15, John Oliver, “Tobacco”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 2, HBO:

     Wow! So the implication there is that even 12-year-olds in France will find the movie tame. “Yes, eet was a, an amusing erotic trifle, I supposa. Ze love-making was passable, but, uh, belt play is a leettle pedestriahn, don’t you seenk?”.

4. Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless
   • Roscommon

     tame slaves of the laborious plough

5. (mathematics, of a knot) Capable of being represented as a finite closed polygonal chain.

   Antonym: wild

Quotations

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:tame.

Derived terms

Terms derived from tame

• tamely

• tameness

Translations

not wild

• Arabic: أَلِيف‎‎ (ʾalīf)
• Armenian: ընտանի (hy) (əntani)
• Catalan: mans (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 馴服的 (zh), 驯服的 (zh) (xúnfú de)

• Czech: krotký m
• Danish: tam
• Dutch: tam (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: tamur
• Finnish: kesy (fi)
• French: apprivoisé (fr)
• Georgian: მორჩილი (morčili), მოთვინიერებული (motvinierebuli), მოშინაურებული (mošinaurebuli), გამგონი (gamgoni), თვინიერი (tvinieri), შეჩვეული (šečveuli)
• German: zahm (de)

  Alemannic German: zam

• Greek: ήμερος (el) m (ímeros)

  Ancient Greek: ἥμερος (hḗmeros)

• Hawaiian: laka
• Hebrew: מאולף / מְאֻלָּף‎‎ m (meuláf)
• Hungarian: szelíd (hu)
• Icelandic: taminn (is), gæfur, spakur (is)
• Indonesian: jinak (id)
• Italian: addomesticato (it), domato (it) m
• Japanese: 飼いならされた (かいならされた, kainarasareta)

• Khmer: ផ្សាំង (km) (psaŋ)
• Korean: 길들인 (gildeurin)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Low German:

  German Low German: tamm, tahm

• Luxembourgish: zam
• Malay: jinak
• Meänkieli: alju
• Norwegian: tam
• Polish: oswojony (pl) m
• Portuguese: domesticado (pt)
• Russian: приручённый (ru) (priručónnyj), ручно́й (ru) (ručnój) (esp. of small animals)
• Scottish Gaelic: ceannsaichte
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пѝтом

  Roman: pìtom (sh)

• Spanish: domesticado (es), manso (es) m
• Swedish: tam (sv)
• Tagalog: maamo
• Telugu: మచ్చిక (te) (maccika)
• Thai: เชื่อง (th) (chʉ̂ʉang)
• Welsh: swci (cy)

Verb

tame (third-person singular simple present tames, present participle taming, simple past and past participle tamed)

1. (transitive) to make something tame

   He tamed the wild horse.

2. (intransitive) to become tame
   • 2006, Gayle Soucek, Doves (page 78)

     Tambourines are shy birds and do not tame easily.

Derived terms

Terms derived from tame

• tameable
• tameableness

• tamer
• untameable

• untameableness

Translations

to make something tame

• Armenian: ընտելացնել (hy) (əntelacʿnel)
• Catalan: domar (ca), amansir (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 馴服 (zh), 驯服 (zh) (xúnfú), 馴化 (zh), 驯化 (zh) (xùnhuà)

• Czech: krotit
• Danish: tæmme (da)
• Dutch: temmen (nl)
• Faroese: temja
• Finnish: kesyttää (fi)
• French: apprivoiser (fr), domestiquer (fr), dompter (fr)
• Georgian: მოთვინიერება (motviniereba), მოშინაურება (mošinaureba)
• German: zähmen (de)
• Greek: εξημερώνω (el) (eximeróno), δαμάζω (el) (damázo), τιθασεύω (el) (tithasévo)

  Ancient Greek: δαμάζω (damázō)

• Indonesian: menjinakkan (id)
• Irish: ceansaigh
• Italian: addomesticare (it), domare (it)

• Japanese: 飼いならす (かいならす, kainarasu)
• Korean: 길들이다 (ko) (gildeurida)
• Latin: mansuesco
• Low German:

  German Low German: tähmen, temmen

• Norwegian: temme
• Polish: oswajać
• Portuguese: domar (pt)
• Russian: прируча́ть (ru) impf (priručátʹ), приручи́ть (ru) pf (priručítʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: ceannsaich, callaich
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: припито̀мити

  Roman: pripitòmiti (sh)

• Spanish: amansar (es), domar (es), domeñar (es)
• Swedish: tämja (sv)

to become tame

• Armenian: ընտելանալ (hy) (əntelanal)
• Finnish: kesyyntyä (fi)
• Georgian: მოთვინიერება (motviniereba), მოშინაურება (mošinaureba)
• German: zahm werden
• Greek: εξημερώνομαι (el) (eximerónomai)
• Italian: addomesticato (it) m, essere domato
• Korean: 길들다 (ko) (gildeulda)

• Latin: mansuesco
• Low German:

  German Low German: tamm warrn, tahm warrn

• Norwegian: temmes
• Portuguese: ser domado, domar-se (pt)
• Russian: прируча́ться (ru) impf (priručátʹsja), приручи́ться (ru) pf (priručítʹsja)

Further reading

• tame on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Compare French entamer (“to cut into, to broach”).

Verb

tame (third-person singular simple present tames, present participle taming, simple past and past participle tamed)

1. (obsolete, Britain, dialect) To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out.
   • Fuller

     In the time of famine he is the Joseph of the country, and keeps the poor from starving. Then he tameth his stacks of corn, which not his covetousness, but providence, hath reserved for time of need.

Anagrams

• AEMT, Atem, META, Meta, Tema, mate, maté, meat, meta, meta-, team

---

Inari Sami

Etymology

From Proto-Samic *δëmē.

Noun

taṃe

1. glue

Inflection

Inflection of tame
	singular	plural
Nominative	tame	tameh
Accusative	tame	toomijd
Genitive	tame	tomij toomij
Illative	taman	toomijd
Locative	taameest	toomijn
Comitative	toomijn	tomijguin
Abessive	tamettáá	tomijttáá
Essive	tammeen	—
Partitive	tammeed	—

Further reading

• Entry 23886 in Álgu database

---

Japanese

Romanization

tame

1. Rōmaji transcription of ため

---

Swedish

Adjective

tame

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of tam.