Maybe I’m just being obtuse, some might even accuse me of being dense, but exactly what is the difference between being tamed and being domesticated?
From Merriam-Webster:
To domesticate is “to adapt (an animal or plant) to life in intimate association with and to the advantage of humans”. To tame is “to reduce from a wild to a domestic state; to subject to cultivation; to bring under control.”
That doesn’t help much with telling the two terms apart. However, the
Encyclopaedia Britannica defines domestication as “the process of hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into domestic and cultivated forms according to the interests of people.” So – taming is bringing an animal under control. Domestication is the genetic reorganising of an entire line of animals to a form that suits humans.