Etymologically
Log in

tame

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 05:46. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

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

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)