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[OM] OT "feral", was #100

Subject: [OM] OT "feral", was #100
From: Chris Barker <ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 10:50:13 +0100
Good point, Keith: why should we still have Graham's photo number 100  
in the subject line when we have gone well-OT?

Whatever the "accepted" scientific usage, I was challenging AndrewF's  
use of the phrase "by definition" when he was discussing a usage  
rather than a definition :-).  I accept the idea that people use  
feral in those various ways, although any proper usage of a word can  
be pejorative by its context -- intentionally.  And I had always  
understood the word "feral" to mean wild-rather-than-domesticated,  
not was-domestic-but-is-now-wild :-).

I would describe a fox as feral; but I would not need to as it is  
taken as read since there is not a general tendency to domesticate  
foxes.

Finally, why do our chickens not let us pick them up?  Is it because  
they are feral, even now? ;-)

Chris
~~ >-)-
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
+44 (0)7092 251126
www.threeshoes.co.uk
homepage.mac.com/zuiko


On 27 May 2006, at 10:03, keith_w wrote:

> Andrew Fildes wrote:
>> Accepted scientific usage is that a feral animal is an escaped
>> domestic animal returned fully to the wild after generations of
>> freedom. Introduced pest animals and plants that have never been
>> domesticated are termed 'exotic' - thus, we have cattle, camels,
>> donkeys, pigs, trout, goldfish, dogs, cats and so on that are feral
>> (NOT stray). They return to their original wild appearance too, so a
>> feral cat is very large and tabby; a feral goldfish is bronze and
>> small, diamond shaped, not orange; a feral pig is small black and
>> hairy, ready to be shot and exported to the French as wild boar. On
>> the other hand, foxes and blackbirds are exotics.
>> Feral is often confused with 'savage' and is a pejorative term. It is
>> also used here as a disapproving description of certain people, neo-
>> hippies usually, who have gone wild in the woods  in warmer parts -
>> living on a mixture of dope and welfare. What the English seem to
>> call travellers (pseudo-Gypsies).
>> Andrew Fildes
>> afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Good post, Andrew...all encompassing, yet concise. Well done!
>
> Now...not quite off topic:
>
> Being a new member to this particular list, I'm at a loss to  
> determine to what
> the "#100" [etc.] in the Subject line refers.
>
> Thanks,
>
> keith whaley
> Older Oly owner (in both senses...)  <g>


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