To make gentle or more docile; to calm or soothe someone or an animal.
From 'gentle' used as a verb, derived from Latin gentilis. The verb form developed in Middle English, originally used in contexts of training animals and gradually extended to human behavior.
Medieval falconers and horse trainers used 'gentles' as a technical term for the delicate process of training wild animals, and this specific vocabulary shows how expertise in working with animals created entire sub-languages within trades.
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