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

(deprecated template usage)

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 tame, to dominate”). 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”).

The verb is from Middle English tamen.

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, flat, insipid, unexciting

   Antonym: exciting

   This party is too tame for me.

   For a thriller, that film was really tame.
4. Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless.
   • (Can we date this quote by Roscommon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     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 using this term, see Citations:tame.

Derived terms

• tamely
• tameness

 

Translations

not wild

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

  Mandarin: 馴服的／驯服的 (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)
• Galician: dócil (gl), manso
• 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: 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Khmer: ផ្សាំង (km) (psaŋ)
• Korean: 길들인 (gildeurin)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: mansuēs, mansuētus, cicur
• Low German:

  German Low German: tamm, tahm

• Luxembourgish: zam
• Malay: jinak
• Meänkieli: alju
• Norwegian: tam
• Old English: 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 (an animal) tame; to domesticate.

   He tamed the wild horse.

2. (intransitive) To become tame or domesticated.
   • 2006, Gayle Soucek, Doves (page 78)

     Tambourines are shy birds and do not tame easily.

3. (transitive) To make gentle or meek.

   to tame a rebellion

Derived terms

• tameable
• tameableness
• tamer
• untameable
• untameableness

 

Translations

to make something tame

• Armenian: ընտելացնել (hy) (əntelacʻnel)
• Catalan: ensinistrar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 馴服／驯服 (zh) (xùnfú), 驯服 (zh) (xúnfú), 馴化／驯化 (zh) (xùnhuà), 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: δαμάζω (damázō), ἡμερόω (hēmeróō)

• Indonesian: menjinakkan (id)
• Irish: ceansaigh
• Italian: addomesticare (it), domare (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 飼いならす (かいならす, kainarasu)
• Korean: 길들이다 (ko) (gildeurida)
• Latin: domō (la), mansuēscō, mansuēfaciō
• Low German:

  German Low German: tähmen, temmen

• Middle English: daunten
• Norwegian: temme
• Old English: temian
• 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)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 被驯化

• 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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

From Middle English tamen (“to cut into, broach”). Compare French entamer.

Verb

1. (obsolete, UK, dialect) To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out.
   • (Can we date this quote by Fuller and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

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

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Inari Sami

Etymology

From Proto-Samic *δëmē.

Noun

taṃe

1. glue

Inflection

Even e-stem, ṃ-m gradation
Nominative	taṃe
Genitive	tame
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	taṃe	tameh
Accusative	tame	toomijd
Genitive	tame	tomij toomij
Illative	taṃan	toomijd
Locative	taameest	toomijn
Comitative	toomijn	tomijguin
Abessive	tamettáá	tomijttáá
Essive	tammeen
Partitive	tammeed
Possessive forms Singular Dual Plural 1st person — — — 2nd person — — — 3rd person — — —

Further reading

• Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008), Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages‎^[1], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

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Japanese

Romanization

tame

1. Rōmaji transcription of ため

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Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English tam, tom, from Proto-Germanic *tamaz (“tame”).

Adjective

tame

1. (of animals) tame, domesticated
2. (of plants) cultivated, domesticated
3. overcome, subdued
4. (of people) meek, compliant
5. (anatomy, medicine, of a fistula) inner, interior

Alternative forms

• tam; tom, tome (early Southwest and Southwest Midlands)

Descendants

• English: tame
• Scots: tame

References

• “tāme, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Verb

tame (third-person singular simple present tameth, present participle tamende, tamynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle tamed)

1. Alternative form of tamen (“to cut, carve”)

Etymology 3

Noun

tame (uncountable)

1. (Northern) Alternative form of tome (“freetime”)

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Swedish

Adjective

tame

1. (deprecated template usage) definite natural masculine singular of tam

Anagrams

• meta, team, tema