Past tense of gentle; to make something calm, mild, or less violent, or to tame an animal through patient handling.
From gentle (Old French gentil, from Latin gentilis meaning well-born or of good family) plus the past tense suffix -ed. The word shifted from describing breeding to describing behavior and treatment.
Horse trainers use the concept of 'gentling' all the time—breaking in wild horses through patience rather than force. Modern equestrian science shows gentled horses have fewer stress-related health problems, validating what good horsemen knew intuitively for centuries.
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