Dictionary

untameable en · ADJ

Etymology

Etymology tree English un- English tame Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English untameable From un- + tame + -able.

Meanings

1. Incapable of being controlled, subdued, or tamed.
   • Of all the carnivorous animals of the Archipelago the only one found in the Moluccas is Viverra tangalunga, which inhabits both Batchian and Bouru, and probably come of the other islands. I am inclined to think that this also may have been introduced accidentally, for it is often made captive by the Malays, who procure civet from it, and it is an animal very restless and untameable, and therefore likely to escape. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, chapter 27, in The Malay Archipelago, volume II:
   • “My lord,” said Mary, “it seems to me that you fling on my unhappy and devoted head those evils, which, with far more justice, I may impute to your own turbulent, wild, and untameable dispositions.” 1820, Walter Scott, chapter 22, in The Abbot:

Forms

Deriveds

untameably · untameableness · untameability

Translations (17)

es indomable (cannot be tamed) · gv neuveeinagh (cannot be tamed) · gl indómito (cannot be tamed) · gl indomable (cannot be tamed) · nl ontembaar (cannot be tamed) · sv otämjbar (cannot be tamed) · es indómito (cannot be tamed) · gl indomábel (cannot be tamed) · pt esquivo (cannot be tamed) · de unzähmbar (cannot be tamed) · el αδάμαστος (cannot be tamed) · fr indomptable (cannot be tamed) · pt indomável (cannot be tamed) · txb ayātaitstse (cannot be tamed) · eo nemalsovaĝigebla (cannot be tamed) · bg неукротим (cannot be tamed) · gv neusmaghtagh (cannot be tamed)