1 When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used. 2 The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.
Tum dēnique interficiēre, cum iam nēmōtam improbus,tam perditus,tam tuī similis invenīrī poterit, quī id nōn iūre factum esse fateātur.
Then, finally, you will be killed, when no oneso wicked,so depraved, orso like you can be found who will not admit that this was done justly. (tam … tam … tam … exemplifiesanaphora.)
† Turned conjunction with original meaning somewhat dissimilated ° Rare ‡ Only used as a conjunction, not as an interrogative. * Old Latin; ridiculed by most grammarians in later stages.
“tam”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“tam”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891),An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
"tam", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’sGlossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894),Latin Phrase-Book[5], London:Macmillan and Co.
amongst such moral depravity:tam perditis orcorruptis moribus
^De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “tam”, inEtymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill,→ISBN,page606
Boryś, Wiesław (2005), “tam”, inSłownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie,→ISBN
B. Sieradzka-Baziur,Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “2. tam”, inSłownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków:IJP PAN,→ISBN
According toSłownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990),tam (adverb) is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 34 times in scientific texts, 35 times in news, 70 times in essays, 148 times in fiction, and 216 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 503 times, making it the 87th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[1]
According toSłownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990),tam (particle) is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 0 times in scientific texts, 0 times in news, 0 times in essays, 27 times in fiction, and 78 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 105 times, making it the 593rd most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[2]
^Ida Kurcz (1990), “tam (adverb)”, inSłownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 2, Kraków; Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page595
^Ida Kurcz (1990), “tam (particle)”, inSłownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 2, Kraków; Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page595
“TAM I”, inElektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 10 May 2016
“TAM II”, inElektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 14 January 2008
“tam”, inSlovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak),https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk,2003–2025
1 The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. 2 Dated or archaic. 3 Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.
Attested inPhật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh (佛說大報父母恩重經) as三 (MC sam) (modernSV:tam).
The term was probably already archaic in Northern Old Vietnamese by the time it started to be written down and was only attested in the compound三(anh tam,“elder brother and younger sibling”). However, it continues to be used until present days (although also seems to be limited in certain compounds) in the conservative North Central dialects ofHà Tĩnh,Quảng Bình,Quảng Trị.
