tame

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tame, also tom,^[2][3] inherited from Old English tam, also tom (“domesticated, docile”),^{[4][3][2][5][6]} from Proto-Germanic *tamaz,^[3][5][7][8] the source also of Old Norse tamr, Old Saxon tam, Old Frisian tam, Middle Dutch tam, Dutch tam, Old High German zam and German zahm.^[3][4][9][8] Etymonline derives the Middle English form from the oblique forms of the Old English adjective.^[3] The Germanic stem appears in Gothic only in the verb Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍄𐌰𐌼𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gatamjan, “to tame”).^[4][9] It goes back to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (“to tame, subdue”),^[10][3][6] which also gave Latin domō (“to tame, subdue”), the source of daunt and indomitable, and Ancient Greek δαμάω (damáō, “to tame”), whence adamant and diamond.^[7][9][8] Klein and Orel connect the root further with *dem- (“house”), the first meaning being "to accustom animals to the house";^[9][8] Etymonline calls this only a possible connection.^[3] The verb is inherited from Middle English tamen, from the adjective, replacing the earlier temen, temian (“to tame, subdue”).^{[4][5][11][3]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Of animals, reclaimed from the wild and brought under human control; also, accustomed to people: in King Alfred's translation of Boethius, before 899.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the adjective was used of people subdued or restrained (about 1200), and since the mid-13th century of animals domesticated and of people meek and gentle.^[3] The verb tamen is recorded from about 1315, and the sense "to subdue, curb" from the Wycliffite Bible (about 1384).^[4][3] The sense "submissive, poor-spirited" dates from 1563, and "lacking spirit, dull, insipid" from Shakespeare's Hamlet (1604);^[4][3] later the word was used of scenery without striking features (1807).^[4] From 1551 it was applied to cultivated plants, a use the OED later found restricted to the United States.^[4] Addison used it humorously in 1711 of a person kept for private use,^[4] and tame cat, someone made a convenience by friends, dates from 1605.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "not wild; domestick".^[12] Etymonline quotes William Taylor (1813) distinguishing gentle animals, naturally docile, from tame ones, made so by human art.^[3]

Timeline

• before 899 – of animals, domesticated; accustomed to people.^[4][2]
• c. 1200 – the form tom, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[2]
• c. 1250 – the form tame.^[2]
• c. 1315 – verb, to domesticate a wild animal.^[4]
• c. 1384 – verb, to subdue, curb.^[4]
• 1551 – of plants, cultivated.^[4]
• 1563 – submissive, meek, poor-spirited.^[4]
• 1604 – lacking animation; dull, insipid.^[4]
• 1646 – verb, to become tame.^[4]
• 1807 – of scenery, lacking striking features.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of an animal, domesticated, no longer wild: a tame ferret.^[13][14][4]
2. Of an animal, not afraid of people: The deer in the park are quite tame.^[13][4]
3. Lacking spirit; meek or submissive.^[13][4]
4. Dull, insipid or unexciting: The debate was a tame affair.^[13][14][4]
5. Kept or used to serve someone's purposes; harmless: the board's tame economist.^[14][4]

Verb

1. To make a wild animal tame; to domesticate: The settlers tamed wild horses.^[13][14][4]
2. To bring under control; to subdue or curb: efforts to tame inflation.^[13][14][4]
3. To tone down or soften.^[13][4]
4. To bring land or plants under cultivation.^[14][4]

Word family

• tamable
• tamely
• tameness
• tamer
• overtame
• untame
• tameless
• tameable

Related words

• daunt
• indomitable
• adamant
• diamond
• domestic

Usage notes

A separate dialect verb tame, to cut into, broach or prune, is a shortening of attame or entame, also atamen, and was used in the West Country.^{[4][14][15][16]}

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)