Other forms: taming, tamed, tames
A tame animal is one that has got used to people and neither runs nor attacks. The fox in the park that stops instead of bolting, a parrot that steps onto your finger, sheep that walk right up to your hand.
As a verb you tame a horse, a hawk, a wolf cub — and then, by extension, anything wild: tame inflation, tame your hair, tame a difficult class. The other everyday meaning is dull: a tame ending, a tame joke, a sequel that looks tame beside the first film. Tame is not the same as domesticated. Dogs and cows are domesticated, changed by breeding over thousands of years, while a tame animal is one individual that has been gentled — which is why a tame tiger is still a tiger. The adverb tamely means without a fight: they surrendered tamely.
1adjectivetameOf an animal, used to people and not dangerous.
“The deer here are tame enough to eat out of your hand.”
synonyms: domesticated, gentle
2adjectivemilderMilder, duller or less exciting than expected.
“After the trailer, the film itself felt tame.”
3verbsafeTo make a wild animal used to people and safe to handle.
“It took two winters to tame the pony.”
4verbbringTo bring something wild or unruly under control.
“The new rules were meant to tame the housing market.”
Also accepted in games: domesticated
Old English tam sits on Proto-Germanic *tamaz, which meant 'brought into the home' as much as 'tame', and behind that stands the Proto-Indo-European root *demh₂-, 'to tame, dominate'. Taming an animal meant, from the start, bringing it indoors and under your hand. German zahm, Dutch tam and Swedish tam are all the same old word.
Proto-Indo-European
*demh₂- — to tame, dominate
Proto-Germanic
*tamaz — brought into the home, tame
Proto-West Germanic
*tam — tame
Old English
tam
Middle English
tame
English, today
tame
Built from
From Middle English tame, tome, weak inflection forms of Middle English tam, tom, from Old English tam, tom (“domesticated, tame”), from Proto-West Germanic tam (“tame”), from Proto-Germanic tamaz (“brought into the home, tame”), from Proto-Indo-European demh₂- (“to tame, dominate”). Cognate with Scots tam, tame (“tame”), stq tom (“tame”), West Frisian tam (“tame”), Dutch tam (“tame”), Low German Low German tamm, tahm (“tame”), German zahm (“tame”), Danish tam (“tame”), Swedish tam (“tame”), Icelandic tamur (“tame”). The verb is from Middle English tamen, temen, temien, from Old English temian (“to tame”), from Proto-West Germanic tammjan, from Proto-Germanic tamjaną (“to tame”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA