Tame
Origin
Middle English, from Old English tam; akin to Old High German zam tame, Latin domare to tame, Greek damnanai
Definitions
- 1: reduced from a state of native wildness especially so as to be tractable and useful to humans : domesticated <tame animals>
- 2: made docile and submissive : subdued
- 3: lacking spirit, zest, interest, or the capacity to excite : insipid <a tame campaign>
Description
A tame animal is an animal which tolerates the presence of humans. Tameness is a degree to which an animal accepts humans. An animal may be naturally tame, as., e.g., in the case of island tameness, or became tame as a result of deliberate taming, a process during which an initial tendency to avoid humans diminished to a varying degree. The tameability of an animal is the level of difficulty of taming an animal. Tameability may vary among individual animals, breeds, or species.
Taming should not be confused with domestication. For example feral animals are domestic, but not tamed.
Similarly, taming is not the same as animal training, although in some contexts these terms may be used interchangeably.
