6 ms·
That's completely false, but I wouldn't put any stock in anything that comes out of Texas Monthly, it's usually just race-bait... The word "cowboy" originates
by theultdev 2y ago
That's completely false, but I wouldn't put any stock in anything that comes out of Texas Monthly, it's usually just race-bait...
The word "cowboy" originates from the Spanish term "vaquero" which refers to an individual who manages cattle while mounted on horseback.
The Spanish word "vaquero" is derived from "vaca" meaning "cow" which comes from the Latin word "vacca".
The term "cowboy" was first used in print by Jonathan Swift in 1725 and was used in the British Isles from 1820 to 1850 to describe young boys who tended the family or community cows.
Before "cowboy" the English word "cowherd" was used to describe a cattle herder, often referring to a pre-adolescent or early adolescent boy who usually worked on foot. This term is very old in the English language, originating prior to the year 1000.
The term "cowboy" was in use by 1849, although it was not used in all locations. The men who drove cattle for a living in the southwest were usually called cowhands, drovers, or stockmen.
Variations on the word appeared later, such as "cowhand" in about 1852 and "cowpoke" in 1881, originally restricted to individuals who prodded cattle with long poles to load them onto railroad cars for shipping.
To this day, cowhand and ranchhand are mainly used in America. The term cowboy is now generally used in the rodeo and a catch-all term.
- cafard 2y agoSee also https://hudsonrivervalley.wordpress.com/2018/10/19/cowboys-and-skinners-in-the-revolution/ https://hudsonrivervalley.wordpress.com/2018/10/19/cowboys-a...
- AlecSchueler 2y agoWhat's the link between vaquero and cowboy? I get that they both derive from the name of the same animal but is there actually a lineal relationship between them? And why would a Spanish source word cancel out or disprove any later racial associations of the word? Regarding the other terms that were in use: Cowhand, ranchhand, drovers, stockmen etc etc. - does the use of these terms disprove the racialised aspects of cowboy or the story of how the word became popularised? I would think cowboy could have still been popularised in the slavery context despite not having been coined especially for it.
- Cenk 2y agoThe original claim also only referred to the usage of the term in Fort Bend County and the surrounding area
- theultdev 2y agoWell, the term "buckaroo" is believed to be an anglicized version of "vaquero" showing phonological characteristics compatible with its Spanish origin. The word "buckaroo" first appeared in American English in 1827. It's still used to refer to a certain style of cowboys and horsemanship, particularly in the Great Basin region of the United States, which retains characteristics of the traditional vaquero. But to your criticism, the transition from "vaquero" to "cowboy" just reflects the influence of Spanish culture on American ranching practices. Vaqueros and cowboys worked side by side so it seems to be a natural transition between the two and has much more support historically and linguistically than the complete lack of evidence provided by the article. Words don't appear out of nowhere, they naturally evolve and generally are based on imported words and root words, and it makes sense that Spain, the ones who created this practice and imported these cows and horses were the root of the evolution, beginning from the latin root word "vacca".
- actionfromafar 2y agoSo what is the lineage from "buckaroo" to "cowboy"?
- theultdev 2y agoI don't think there is a lineage it's believed to be the literal anglicized version of vaquero. It was another branching of the word vaquero. The term cowboy seems to have occurred naturally as a less literal transition of the word vaquero. I am not a linguistics expert though, there may be someone else that has more details on the transition. I will also accept a fortification of the article's attempt at explaining the origin, but I don't see any evidence or attempt at providing any. Also as I noted in earlier comments the word "cowboy" was being used in print in 1725 by that time and used heavily in the British Isles in the mid 1800s
- infecto 2y ago"put any stock in anything that comes out of Texas Monthly, it's usually just race-bait" citation?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- theultdev 2y ago[flagged]
- infecto 2y agoIf you don't have real examples then I will take it that you are just creating a problem where none exists. Who is "they"? It looks like the origin is coming from a quote by Larry Callies who runs the Black Cowboy Museum. Is everything quoted correct? I don't know but it read as a fun story that may be some mix of truth / story and probably heavily location specific. I am not sure sure that would classify as "race-baiting". There are articles of slavery and race in TM but I would not classify it as more than 25% maybe?
- theultdev 2y agoI just gave an example of them making up an origin of the term "cowboy" being related to slavery with no supporting evidence.
- infecto 2y agoWho is them? It’s a quote from a man who runs a museum? Did he make it up? Is it from passing down of verbal knowledge? Seems like if I was writing an article, going to the museum of black cowboys could have some interesting information. Just because his information is different from your “linguistic” history does not mean it’s race baiting trash.
- smoothbenny 2y ago[0] “I made it up.”
- ohwellhere 2y ago> used in the British Isles from 1820 to 1850 to describe young boys who tended the family or community cows This sounds like exactly the kind of definition that would get appropriated to belittle slaves. See also simply, “boy.”
- theultdev 2y agoThat's your own prejudice coming out. The word boy may have a negative connotation in some usages, but in this case it's referring to literal boys. The term was used for family and community farms, not for large ranches / plantations. The fathers and sons would tend to a small head of cattle used to feed their family and the community. They did not and could not afford to own slaves. Plus the term was used well after Britain outlawed slavery.
- tcskeptic 2y agoI think the point being made is that it seems plausible that a term used in Britain to refer to literal boys was repurposed later in a different context to be a demeaning way to refer to an adult man working with cattle in the US.
- theultdev 2y agoIt might be plausible if any evidence was presented, otherwise it's very loose speculation. Many of the cowhands working side by side vaqueros were literal boys (15-17) and very young men. In Texas it's very common to call a young man a boy. Currently it's a baseless accusation that it was a derogatory term, even moreso that it's racial. It's never been mentioned as such until now, well past the high days of cowboys.
- FrustratedMonky 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- doodlebugging 2y ago>I wouldn't put any stock in anything that comes out of Texas Monthly, it's usually just race-bait... I've been reading TM since the 1970's. Anyone who characterizes their reporting as race-baiting is playing to an agenda. They have always reported on stories, events, personalities, etc that have a connection to Texas with no regard for who they might offend in the process. They roast politicians from the left and right and offer the most unvarnished accounts of events in the state. They are about as middle-ground as you'll find anywhere. I don't always agree with things they write but they do honest reporting. With that said, I agree with you about the origins of the term "cowboy" and how it has never been associated with nor has it ever been explained historically as a term first applied to black slaves in Texas who found themselves tending cattle. That is as I have been known to say periodically, bullshit of the purest kind. It is quite true that black men in the southern slave states were denigrated by referring to them as "boys" regardless of their ages but it is not accurate historically for anyone to connect "cow" and "boy" as in the article in such a way that would imply the that the term "cowboy" was first used in that county to describe slaves who tended cattle. Those black slaves who helped tend the cattle learned that trade from Mexican vaqueros (Spanish for "herder of cattle") employed to tend cattle or from the white owners of those cattle. I found one article that makes a similar claim to the one made in the article - that black cowhands were referred to as "cowboys" and white cowhands were referred to as "cowmen". [0] There is no merit to this claim. The author's byline implies to me, a bit of bias on the subject and cements in my own mind a perception of this claim as bullshit. [0] https://medium.com/@ronaustin/the-true-origin-of-the-historical-term-cowboy-3905a8905577 https://medium.com/@ronaustin/the-true-origin-of-the-histori... In fact if you have ever read a biography of someone who actually was a black cowboy, born as a slave, who later rode the cattle drives you would find that the term was applied equally to all who shared that dust regardless of race. [1] This is Nat Love's biography. He was a notable black cowboy whose exploits became the basis for the Deadwood Dick stories in the late 19th century. One passage describes his own experiences riding the range with other cowboys: - Love recalled the camaraderie of cowboys with admiration. “A braver, truer set of men never lived than these wild sons of the plains whose home was in the saddle and their couch, mother earth, with the sky for a covering,” he wrote. “They were always ready to share their blanket and their last ration with a less fortunate fellow companion and always assisted each other in the many trying situations that were continually coming up in a cowboy's life.” [1] https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21634 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21634 To me the thing that makes it so unlikely that "cowboy" was a derogatory term invented locally and used to describe black cowhands is the fact that during and after the Civil War in the heyday of cattle drives and up until today the term "cowboy" was applied to those men who drove the herds to the rails to feed the eastern appetite for steak. By all accounts 25% of the cowboys were black, 30% were hispanic, and 45% were white. If the white men were so racist that they used that term to insult the black men they rode with and shared trail dust with, then why did they accept the term when it was used contemporaneously by others to describe themselves? Why did it historically become okay for a white guy to be called a cowboy? As they say down around where I'm from here in Texas - "sumpum ain't raht" or "that dog won't hunt". With all that said, I agree with you that the term cowboy was already in use in one form or another to apply to men and boys who worked cattle in Texas and did not carry any racial connotations related to the 'boy' ending. That's bullshit. In Texas, by the time Anglos settled Ft Bend County and started plantations with their imported slaves providing most of the labor, there was already a culture of cattle working from horseback with roots in the original Spanish settlers in the 17th century and the Spanish term vaquero became anglicized to cowboy as white settlers moved in during the early 19th century.
- dang 2y agoCan you please not post in the flamewar style to HN? You did a ton of it in this thread and it's the opposite of what we're trying for here. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting, we'd appreciate it. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40084620 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40084620.