tammed

Tammed is an infrequently encountered and nonstandard form in English. It is sometimes described as a past-tense variant of the verb tam, which means to pack, press, or compact a substance, such as soil or tobacco. The standard past tense in contemporary usage is tamped, not tammed. Because tammed is not widely recognized in major dictionaries, its appearance is usually regarded as nonstandard, dialectal, or the result of a typographical error.

Etymology and usage notes. The form tammed would be a regular -ed past tense in many English verbs, but tam is normally conjugated as tamped in modern practice. In some historical or regional writings, nonstandard spellings may occur, and tammed can appear as an artifact of dialect writing or transcription. In standard editing and publishing, tammed is generally avoided in favor of tamped for the past tense of tamp, or left out entirely if the intended meaning is to describe domestication or gentleness, which would use a different verb (tame).

As a proper noun. Beyond its function as a potential nonstandard verb form, tammed can be found as a fictional or stylistic name in media or literature. In such cases, it may designate a place, organization, product, or character name and is not tied to a fixed linguistic meaning beyond whatever the author assigns.

See also. tamp, tamping, tamped, tamper.