核心畫面

Taming is a hand reaching out and slowly being accepted: food offered, a rope, a fence, a path, a field. Untamed is the picture with that hand taken out again. The horse still steps back when you come near. The valley still has no straight line in it. Nothing here is broken or empty — it simply has not been brought under anybody's control, and the word often carries the hint that somebody tried.

馴服可以想成一隻慢慢被接受的手:先遞食物,再來是繩子、圍籬、小路、田。untamed 就是把那隻手抽走之後的畫面。馬更多收起馴服可以想成一隻慢慢被接受的手:先遞食物,再來是繩子、圍籬、小路、田。untamed 就是把那隻手抽走之後的畫面。馬還是一靠近就退開。山谷裡還是找不到一條直線。這裡沒有壞掉,也不是空的。只是還沒有被誰管住。而這個字常常還帶一句沒說出口的話:有人試過。

From the word’s history

un- plus tamed, from Middle English untamed; the word is simply the picture of taming with a not in front of it.

un-(沒有)加上 tamed(被馴服的),中古英文就有 untamed 這個形式。它的結構本身就是意思:把「馴服」那張圖片,前面加一個「沒有」。

packet Wiktionary etymology for untamed (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1108811814): "From Middle English untamed, untemed, equivalent to un- + tamed"

One branch

沒有被人動過

兩個用法是同一句話落在兩種對象上:一次落在活的動物身上,一次落在一片土地上。

adjective · B2

An untamed animal has not been trained to live or work with people, so it keeps its distance, does what it wants, and will not let you handle it.

未馴服的