handtame
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 0.00 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Tame and accustomed to being held in the hand; (by extension) mild; meek; humble; docile
verb
To cause (someone or something) to become accustomed to being handled
Example Sentences
- "I badly wanted a little more time to work on training them, but simply couldn't find it — so while they grew up friendly and confident, you couldn't exactly called them handtame."
- "This is a really popular image with British photographers when photographing Atlantic puffins, which can be hand-tame — indeed, I have had puffins playfully tugging at my laces while sitting on a cliff top!"
- "Tamir was all her joy. She had him hand-tame, spoiled him most tenderly."
- "Even children can handtame wild birds, if they follow Al Martin's simple directions."
- "So now that you've decided to handtame your canary, just where do you start?"
Etymology
From Middle English handtame, from Old English handtam (“tame enough to be handled”), from Proto-West Germanic *handutam, equivalent to hand + tame. Cognate with Dutch handtam (“handtame”), German Low German handtamm (“handtame”), German handzahm (“handtame”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: handtame, handtam, *handutam
Inflected Forms
more handtame (comparative)
most handtame (superlative)
hand-tame (alternative)
handtames (present, singular)
handtaming (participle, present)
handtamed (participle, past)
handtamed (past)