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Fame vs Tame - What's the difference?

fame | tame |

In transitive terms the difference between fame and tame

is that fame is to make (someone or something) famous while tame is to make something tame.

As a noun fame

is what is said or reported; gossip, rumour.

As an adjective tame is

not or no longer wild; domesticated.

fame

English

Noun

(-)
  • What is said or reported; gossip, rumour.
  • * 1667 , (John Milton), (Paradise Lost) , Book 1, ll. 651-4:
  • There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long / Intended to create, and therein plant / A generation, whom his choice regard / Should favour […].
  • * 2012 , Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex , Penguin 2013, p. 23:
  • If the accused could produce a specified number of honest neighbours to swear publicly that the suspicion was unfounded, and if no one else came forward to contradict them convincingly, the charge was dropped: otherwise the common fame was held to be true.
  • One's reputation.
  • The state of being famous or well-known and spoken of.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.}}

    Derived terms

    * hall of fame * walk of fame

    Verb

    (fam)
  • To make (someone or something) famous.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    tame

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Not or no longer wild; domesticated
  • They have a tame wildcat.
  • (chiefly, of animals) Mild and well-behaved; accustomed to human contact
  • The lion was quite tame .
  • Not exciting
  • This party is too tame for me.
    For a thriller, that film was really tame .
  • 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.
  • Synonyms
    * (not exciting) dull, insipid
    Antonyms
    * (not wild) wild * (mild and well-behaved) gentle * (not exciting) exciting * (mathematics) wild
    Derived terms
    * tamely * tameness

    Verb

  • to make something
  • He tamed the wild horse.
  • to become
  • Derived terms
    * tamer

    Etymology 2

    Compare (etyl) .

    Verb

    (tam)
  • (obsolete, UK, dialect) 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.

    Anagrams

    * * * * English ergative verbs ----