# A fine distinction

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fine-distinction/210201>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 29, 2003, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fine-distinction/210201 "2003-10-29T09:27:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zaklog\_the\_Great](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/aca169/32.png) [@Zaklog\_the\_Great](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zaklog_the_Great)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fine-distinction/210201/1 "2003-10-29T09:27:27Z")

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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?

[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpetcats.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpetcats.html)

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**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fine-distinction/210201/2 "2003-10-29T10:13:49Z")

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From [Merriam-Webster](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary):

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](http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=31369) 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.