tame

See also: Tame and tamë

EnglishEdit

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

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”).

tame (comparative tamer, superlative tamest)

Not or no longer wild; domesticated
Antonym: wild

They have a tame wildcat.
(chiefly of animals) Mild and well-behaved; accustomed to human contact
Synonym: gentle

The lion was quite tame.
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?”.
Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless
- Roscommon
  tame slaves of the laborious plough
(mathematics, of a knot) Capable of being represented as a finite closed polygonal chain.
Antonym: wild

Derived terms

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: 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
Latin: mansuēs
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)

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

(transitive) to make something tame
He tamed the wild horse.
(intransitive) to become tame
- 2006, Gayle Soucek, Doves (page 78)
  Tambourines are shy birds and do not tame easily.

Derived terms

to make something tame

to become tame

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)

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

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

(obsolete, Britain, dialectal) 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.