Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Cowboy |
CowboyNoun1. A hired hand who tends cattle and performs other duties on horseback. 2. A performer who gives exhibitions of riding and roping and bulldogging. 3. Someone who is reckless or irresponsible (especially in driving vehicles). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "cowboy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1862. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Cowboy n. [Sun, from William Gibson's cyberpunk SF] Synonym for hacker. It is reported that at Sun this word is often said with reverence. Source: Jargon File. |
Slang | Interjection. Source: Unknown. Definition: The social group has two different meanings for this slang word. One meaning is for the woman of the group. They use this word when refering to a guy that is very good looking. Then next meaning is a meaning for the men of the group. They use this word as a meaning for a guy with homosexual features and actions. Context: They both uise this word to refer to a man, one being that they guy is good looking and the other being that the guy is homosexual. Social Source: Lake Oswego "Rebels". Source: Compiled by The University of Oregon. (additional references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
American cowboy circa 1887A cowboy is a herder, usually hired by a rancher to tend his livestock, especially cattle. A cowboy is responsible for feeding the livestock, branding cattle and marking other livestock, and tending to their injuries or other needs. They also repair fences and maintain other equipment. Working in the wild, cowboys often have many other skills. Danger and excitement are a part of a cowboy's daily life. In spite of the term, cowboys are often adults.
History
The Spanish were adept at herding livestock. During the 15th century, they brought the tradition with them to the New World. American ranchers absorbed Mexican vaquero culture after the Mexican-American War in the 1850s, borrowing vocabulary and attire from their southern counterparts. In particular, the vaquero lifestyle appealed to freed African-American slaves.
Over time, the cowboys of the American West developed a culture of their own, a blend of frontier and Victorian values. Such hazardous work in isolated conditions bred a tradition of loneliness and misery, which is exemplified in their cowboy songs and cowboy poetry. Poor weather and management in the 1880s lessened the need in America for ranching cowboys, so the profession of rodeo cowboy was invented to keep their traditions alive. In the 1930s and 1940s, Western movies popularized the cowboy lifestyle but also formed persistent stereotypes.
See also: gaucho
Further reading
- Cowboys: A Vanishing World, Photographs by Jon Nicholson, Macmillan, 2001, hardcover, ISBN 0-333-90208-4
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Cowboy."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
(Note to all Wikipedians and Wikipedia.com readers: This is a partial list of famous cowboys and cowgirls. If there are any missing, please feel free to add their names to the list)
Famous cowboys and cowgirls
- Black Bart
- Buffalo Bill
- Ned Buntline (Edward Judson)
- Butch Cassidy
- Nate Champion
- Mysterious Dave
- Deadwood Dick (Nat Love)
- Morgan Earp
- Wyatt Earp
- Virgil Earp
- Pat Garrity
- John Wesley Hardin
- Wild Bill Hickcock
- Doc Holliday
- Frank James
- Jesse James
- Calamity Jane
- Billy the Kid
- The Sundance Kid
- Bat Masterson
- Annie Oakley
- Connie Douglas Reeves
- Johnny Ringo
- Belle Starr
Fictional
- Lone Ranger
- Lucky Luke
- The Man with No Name
- Red Ryder
- Shane
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "List of cowboys and cowgirls."
Synonyms: CowboySynonyms: cattleman (n), cowhand (n), cowherd (n), cowman (n), cowpoke (n), cowpuncher (n), puncher (n), rodeo rider (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Husbandry | Neatherd, cowherd, shepherd; grazier, drover, cowkeeper; trainer, breeder; apiarian, apiarist; bull whacker, cowboy, cow puncher, farrier; horse leech, horse doctor; vaquero, veterinarian, vet, veterinary surgeon. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Cowboy |
| English words defined with "cowboy": bronco buster, buckaroo ♦ cowgirl ♦ gaucho ♦ herd, horse wrangler ♦ play ♦ rodeo, roper ♦ vaquero ♦ wrangler. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Cowboy" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Dutch (cowboy), German (Buckaroo, cowboy), Hungarian (cowboy, cow-puncher), Indonesian (cowboy, rough, rowdy), Italian (rancher), Romanian (cowboy), Spanish (cowboy), Swedish (cowboy, cowhand, cowman, cow-puncher, Roper, wrangler). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You would have made a pretty good cowboy yourself, Hans (Die Hard; writing credit: Jeb Stuart) An armed Negro cowboy costume in a room full of white, Southern, former slave-owners (Wild Wild West; writing credit: Jim Thomas; John Thomas) No. A cowboy doesn't leave his herd (City Slickers; writing credit: Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, and Billy Crystal) I let you touch me, cowboy, I think I need a bath (The Long Kiss Goodnight; writing credit: Shane Black.) Depends on what you think a real cowboy is (Urban Cowboy; writing credit: Themes . search . forum . members . store . about) | |
Lyrics | Cowboy, baby (Cowboy; performing artist: KID ROCK) I said Cowboy take me away (Cowboy Take Me Away; performing artist: Dixie Chicks) Like a rhinestone cowboy (Rhinestone Cowboy; performing artist: Glen Campbell; writing credit: Larry Weiss) I'm a cowboy, I got the night on my side (Wanted Dead or Alive; performing artist: Bon Jovi) I AM COWBOY KIM (Big Mess; performing artist: Devo) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Castaway Cowboy (1974) Cowboy and Indian (1972) Midnight Cowboy (1969) San Francisco Cowboy (1969) The Sidewalk Cowboy (1968) | |
Song Titles | Rhinestone Cowboy (performing artist: Glen Campbell) Cowboy (performing artist: Kid Rock) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Cowboy horseback riding by cattle ranch. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Theodore Roosevelt as cowboy rounding up steers labeled as states. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Ride 'im, cowboy!. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Cheyenne, Wyo.--Indian and cowboy have buried the hatchet and smoked the pipe of peace. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Pot luck with the boys--President Roosevelt's cowboy breakfast at Hugo, Colorado. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Cowboy at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Cowboy band in Go Western parade, Billings, Montana. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | "Bucking Bronco." Ned Coy, a famous Dakota cowboy, starts out for the cattle round-up with his pet "Boy Dick.". Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Cowboy / real pen work by Professor J.R. McFarren. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Herbert K. Betts in a play of the golden west, An Arizona cowboy. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Cowboy Farmer" by Gabino Travassos Commentary: "My dad had to get his gun when I asked to take his picture. photo: Gabino Travassos." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | Yahoo; cowboy; cattle; horse; horseback riding; horseback; cows; beef; ranch; ranchers. | | Cowboy; western; organ. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | If you would know the flavor of huckleberries, ask the cowboy or the partridge |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Cowboy" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.45% of the time. "Cowboy" is used about 274 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 97.45% | 267 | 18,030 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.82% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Noun (common) | 0.73% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 274 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "cowboy" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Cowboy | Last name | 300 | 24,793 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "cowboy": cowboy boot ♦ cowboy boots ♦ cowboy hat. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "cowboy": cowboy-booted, cowboy-boots, cowboy-like, cowboy-style, cowboy-type. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
dallas cowboy | 7,912 | straw cowboy hat | 158 |
cowboy | 5,924 | cowboy poetry | 154 |
cowboy bebop | 4,063 | cowboy bebop mp3 | 150 |
cowboy hat | 2,919 | cowboy indian | 149 |
cowboy boot | 1,885 | urban cowboy | 145 |
cowboy art | 713 | ticket to the dallas cowboy | 142 |
cowboy decor | 561 | cowboy action shooting | 141 |
dallas cowboy cheerleader | 487 | cowboy fringants | 137 |
cowboy bebop wallpaper | 403 | cowboy bebop image | 129 |
cowboy picture | 378 | cowboy bebop music | 112 |
cowboy bebop movie | 312 | dallas cowboy news | 109 |
gay cowboy | 311 | cowboy up | 108 |
rodeo cowboy | 285 | cowboy fringants les | 98 |
cowboy bebop pic | 280 | ghetto cowboy | 98 |
cowboy bebop picture | 255 | ticket to the cowboy | 98 |
cowboy mouth | 199 | cowboy photo | 95 |
cowboy clipart | 198 | midnight cowboy | 92 |
cowboy gear | 185 | cowboy belt buckle | 92 |
cowboy junkies | 184 | dallas cowboy wallpaper | 91 |
american cowboy | 172 | western cowboy | 90 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "cowboy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | lopar (cow hand, cowherd, cow-puncher). (various references) | |
Arabic | راعي البقر (cattleman, cowherd, wrangler), بقار راعي البقري. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | каубой (cowpuncher, puncher, stockrider, vaquero, wrangler), говедарче. (various references) | |
Chinese | 牛仔 . (various references) | |
Czech | kovboj (outrider). (various references) | |
Danish | cowboystøvle (vaquero), kvaegvogter (cattleman, cowherd, cowman), kvaeghyrde (cattleman, cowherd, cowman), kreaturpasser (cattleman, cowherd, cowman, drover, ox driver, US:cowboy), kohyrde (cattleman, cowherd, cowman). (various references) | |
Dutch | cowboy (vaquero). (various references) | |
Esperanto | vakero. (various references) | |
Farsi | گاوچران(cowhand). (various references) | |
Finnish | paimenpoika (cattleman, cowherd, cowman), paimen (herdsman), lännensaappaat (vaquero), länkkärit (vaquero), karjapaimen (cattleman, cowherd, cowman). (various references) | |
French | vacher (cowherd, cowman). (various references) | |
German | cowboy (Buckaroo), Kuhhirt. (various references) | |
Greek | κάου-μπόι, μπότα cowboy (vaquero). (various references) | |
Hebrew | בוקר (cattleman, morning, rancher). (various references) | |
Hungarian | cowboy (cow-puncher), tehenészfiú, tehénpásztor (cowherd, cowman, gaucho). (various references) | |
Indonesian | cowboy (rough, rowdy), gembala sapi. (various references) | |
Italian | vaccaro (cattleman, cowherd, cowman, stockman, US:cowboy). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 牧童 (shepherd), カーボン紙 (black currant, cacao, cactus, Caesar, Cairo, car lease, car life, car race, car radio, carbon paper, carcase, carcass, Carlton, carmine, carport, Casio, Cassiopeia, Cassisliqueur, chaos, chiropractic, chiropractor, cocktail, cocktail dress, cocktail glass, cocktail lounge, cocktail party, couch potato, counseling, counselor, count, countdown, counter, counter attack, counter display, counterblow, counter-propagation, counterpunch, counterpurchase, count-out, cowboy hat, cowhide, curl, Curlash, curler, curling, curve, Kahn, Kaiser, Kamasutra, Kashmir, kinesics, kite, kymograph, rustle, television addict). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ぼくどう (shepherd), カウボーイ . (various references) | |
Korean | 카우보이. (various references) | |
Manx | guilley baa (buckaroo, cattleman). (various references) | |
Maya | mayool. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | owboycay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | vaqueiro (cowherd, cow-puncher, drover, herdsman, neatherd, roper, wrangler), boiadeiro (herdsman). (various references) | |
Romanian | cowboy, vãcar (cowherd, herd, neatherd, oxherd). (various references) | |
Russian | ковбой (cow-boy, cowhand, cowpuncher, cow-puncher, puncher, stockrider). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | kauboj (cow-puncher), čuvar stada. (various references) | |
Spanish | vaquero (cowherd, herdsman, Jean, puncher, wrangler), cowboy (vaquero). (various references) | |
Swedish | cowboy (cowhand, cowman, cow-puncher, Roper, wrangler), vaquero-cowboystövel (vaquero), vaquero (vaquero), ladugårdsskötare (cattleman, cowherd, cowman). (various references) | |
Turkish | usta binici, sığırtmaç (cow hand, cowherd, cowman, drover, herdsman, wrangler), sığır çobanı (cow hand, cowherd, drover, herdsman, wrangler), kovboy (cow hand, cowherd, cowpuncher, puncher). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | ковбой (cowpuncher, rancher, ranchman), пастух (cattleman, cowherd, folder, herd, herdman, herdsman, neatherd, oxherd). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | armentarius. (various references) |
| Spanish | 900-Modern | vaquero. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "cowboy": cowboys. (additional references) | |
| |
"Cowboy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ccowboy, ccwboy, cobey, cobwey, Conboy, cookboy, cowbey, cowboi, coyboy, Odboy. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-c-o-o-w-y" | |
-2 letters: boyo, cowy. | |
-3 letters: boo, bow, boy, cob, coo, cow, coy, woo, yob, yow. | |
-4 letters: bo, by, ow, oy, wo, yo. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-c-o-o-w-y" | |
+1 letter: cowboys. | |
+4 letters: backwoodsy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Names: Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Derivations 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
