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Re: wild, feral, ??, tame, domesticated

From:John Cowan <cowan@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 3, 2003, 11:34
Peter Bleackley scripsit:
> Staving Herman Miller: > >On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 12:31:11 -0600, "Elyse M. Grasso" > ><emgrasso@...> wrote: > > > >>I think there is a word missing in the English semantic space that would > >apply > >>to these geese, and the city pigeons and wrens that pick up crumbs > >underfoot > >>and you almost need to be careful not to step on them. Sort of the > >opposite > >>of feral. ("Weeds" or "pests" doesn't quite work, either...) > > > >You know, there's got to be a technical term for that, at least, but I > >can't think of one. Surely the Zireen languages have a word for it > >though. > > It occurs to me that a wild animal that approaches humans without fear is > often referred to (non-technically) as "bold" in English. The term > contrasts with "shy" for animals that avoid humans.
"Feral" refers to a wild animal (whether shy or not) whose ancestors were domesticated: pigeons in the U.S. are all feral, even though many of them have become acclimatized (which I think is the word wanted). -- In politics, obedience and support John Cowan <jcowan@...> are the same thing. --Hannah Arendt http://www.ccil.org/~cowan

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Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>