Learn English – “Human touch” or “humane touch”

differencesidiomsword-choice

We were to give a tagline for a charitable society for underprivileged children. Someone suggested the human touch and within seconds someone modified it to the humane touch. What is the difference between human and humane or between human touch and humane touch?

Best Answer

Here’s what ‘The Cambridge Guide to English Usage’ says:

There are loftier principles in humane, and a humane approach . . . connotes compassion and concern in situations where others might react harshly. The reactions implied in human are much more down-to-earth . . .

As for your particular instance, human touch is the more ususal expression. Touch collocates more frequently with human than with humane. In the Corpus of Contemporary American English there are 122 records of human touch against two for humane touch. The British National Corpus figures are 19 and 0.