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

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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