Cowboy culture has always had a language of its own.
Life on horseback, long cattle drives, remote ranches and frontier towns produced a colourful vocabulary for everything from horses and cattle to food, money, weather and the people you met along the way.
Some expressions came directly from working cowboys. Others were influenced by Spanish-speaking vaqueros, regional American speech or became famous through Western novels and films. And, like most slang, plenty of it changed meaning depending on where and when it was used.
So whether you're trying to tell your buckaroo from your greenhorn, here's the BRAG guide to some of the words, sayings and expressions associated with cowboy culture and the American West.
Buckaroo
Another word for a cowboy, particularly associated with parts of the western United States.
Interestingly, buckaroo is generally considered to have developed from the Spanish word vaquero. As the word passed between Spanish and English speakers, its pronunciation gradually evolved.
Vaquero
A vaquero is a Spanish or Mexican horseman who works with cattle.
Vaquero traditions had an enormous influence on what would eventually become American cowboy culture. Riding techniques, cattle handling, equipment and even parts of the cowboy vocabulary can be traced back to Spanish and Mexican ranching traditions.
Greenhorn
Someone inexperienced or new to a particular way of life.
A newly arrived ranch hand who didn't yet know the ropes might be called a greenhorn. The term wasn't exclusive to cowboys and could be applied more generally to an inexperienced newcomer.
Today we'd probably just call them a rookie.
Tenderfoot
Another term for a newcomer who wasn't accustomed to the hardships of frontier or outdoor life.
A tenderfoot might arrive with enthusiasm but little practical experience of horses, cattle, camping or surviving away from the comforts of town.
Cowpoke
An informal term for a cowboy or cattle hand.
Cowpoke became one of several colourful names associated with people who worked cattle and is still immediately recognisable as cowboy language today.
Cowhand
A much more straightforward one.
A cowhand was simply someone employed to work with cattle, usually on a ranch.
Unlike the romantic image of the gunslinger, the everyday reality of cowboy life involved a huge amount of physical work.
Ranch Hand
Someone employed to carry out the everyday jobs required on a ranch.
That could mean looking after livestock, repairing fences, maintaining equipment, handling horses and doing whatever else needed to be done.
Not quite as glamorous as Hollywood made it look.
Top Hand
A particularly capable or experienced cowboy.
Being described as a top hand was a compliment. It suggested someone who knew what they were doing and could be relied upon when there was work to be done.
Wrangler
Today, most people probably associate the word with jeans, but wrangler has long been connected with horses.
On a ranch or cattle drive, a horse wrangler was responsible for handling and looking after the horses.
Bronco
A wild, untrained or difficult horse.
The image of a cowboy trying to stay aboard a bucking bronco eventually became one of the defining sights of rodeo.
You'll also see bronc used as a shortened form.
Mustang
A free-roaming horse of the American West.
Mustangs descend from horses introduced to North America by Europeans and became deeply embedded in the landscape and mythology of the West.
Few words evoke open country quite like it.
Dogie
A dogie was a motherless or stray calf.
It's one of those pieces of genuine cattle-country vocabulary that became familiar far beyond ranching through cowboy songs and Western popular culture.
Critter
An informal pronunciation of creature, used for an animal.
Depending on the context, a critter could be almost anything wandering around on four legs.
Chuck
Food.
Cowboys needed feeding, and chuck became a common informal term for food or provisions.
Which brings us to...
Chuck Wagon
The mobile kitchen that accompanied cowboys on cattle drives.
The chuck wagon carried food, cooking equipment and supplies, providing meals while the crew was travelling far from towns and permanent settlements.
The cook was an important man to keep happy.
Grub
Another simple cowboy term for food.
If someone told you it was time for grub, you probably didn't need a dictionary.
Arbuckles
Coffee.
More specifically, the name came from Arbuckle Brothers, whose packaged roasted coffee became enormously popular in the American West.
The brand became so closely associated with coffee that Arbuckles could be used as a way of referring to coffee itself.
Sowbelly
Salt pork or bacon.
It was the sort of preserved food that could be transported and stored relatively easily, making it useful when travelling long distances.
Not exactly fine dining, but practical.
Jerky
Meat that has been cut into strips and dried to preserve it.
Long before refrigeration, drying meat was an effective way of making it last longer, particularly when travelling.
Unlike quite a lot of cowboy vocabulary, jerky remains completely familiar today.
Watering Hole
Literally, somewhere animals could drink.
The expression also became a colourful way of describing a bar or drinking place, and that meaning survives today.
Saloon
The drinking establishment most closely associated with frontier towns.
Real saloons varied enormously, but Western films turned the swinging doors, long wooden bar, whiskey bottles and card tables into some of the most recognisable imagery in the genre.
Firewater
A slang term for strong alcoholic drink, particularly whiskey.
The term has a complicated history and has sometimes been used in stereotypical portrayals of Native Americans, so it's worth understanding that context rather than treating it as straightforward cowboy vocabulary.
Belly Up to the Bar
To walk up to or stand at a bar to order a drink.
The phrase is still used today, usually with a slightly old-fashioned or humorous Western flavour.
Ace-High
Excellent, first-rate or highly regarded.
Calling something ace-high was a way of saying it was about as good as it gets.
We'll happily keep that one.
Above Snakes
Alive.
If you were still above snakes, you were still above ground rather than buried beneath it.
In other words, things could be worse.
All Hat and No Cattle
Someone who looks or talks the part but doesn't have the substance to back it up.
It's one of the best-known cowboy expressions and remains useful today.
Big hat. Big talk. No cattle.
Get Along Little Dogies
An expression closely associated with cattle driving and later immortalised through cowboy music.
The dogies were calves, and getting them along meant keeping the herd moving.
Git Along
Essentially, get moving or move along.
The spelling attempts to capture a regional pronunciation rather than representing a separate word.
Mosey
To move along in a relaxed or unhurried way.
You might mosey on over somewhere rather than rushing.
It's one of those Western expressions that has survived surprisingly well in modern English.
Light a Shuck
To leave quickly or get moving.
If somebody told you to light a shuck, hanging around probably wasn't the best idea.
Hightail It
To leave somewhere quickly.
You can still hear people say they're going to hightail it out of here, even if there's not a horse in sight.
Skedaddle
To leave hurriedly.
Another expression that travelled far beyond the frontier and remains understandable today.
Vamoose
To leave or get away quickly.
The word entered American English from Spanish vamos, meaning roughly let's go.
It's another reminder of just how much Spanish language and culture influenced the vocabulary associated with the American West.
Highfalutin
Pretentious, fancy or overly elaborate.
Someone putting on airs or acting more important than they really were might be described as highfalutin.
Definitely not the cowboy way.
Ornery
Bad-tempered, stubborn or difficult.
It could describe a troublesome person — or an equally troublesome animal.
An ornery horse wasn't necessarily the one you'd choose for a peaceful afternoon ride.
Cantankerous
Bad-tempered, argumentative or difficult to deal with.
Not exclusively cowboy slang, but perfectly at home in the vocabulary of Western storytelling.
Yellow-Bellied
Cowardly.
Calling someone yellow-bellied was an accusation that they lacked courage.
Western films certainly got plenty of mileage out of this one.
Sidewinder
Literally a type of rattlesnake that moves sideways across loose sand.
Applied to a person, sidewinder could suggest someone sneaky, dishonest or untrustworthy.
Probably not a compliment.
Snake in the Grass
A treacherous or deceitful person who hides their true intentions.
The phrase wasn't unique to the American West and is considerably older, but it fits so naturally into Western language that it became a familiar part of the genre.
Desperado
An outlaw or dangerous criminal.
The word comes from Spanish and became strongly associated in English with the lawless characters of the American frontier.
It's now almost impossible to hear desperado without imagining the West.
Pistolero
A pistolero is a gunman or gunslinger.
The Spanish term became associated with armed men, gunfighters and outlaws, particularly within the shared culture and mythology of the American-Mexican borderlands.
We've gone much deeper into the character in our Pistolero: The Gunslingers of the Old West guide.
Gunslinger
A person known for carrying and using a handgun.
Interestingly, the word itself became particularly prominent through later Western storytelling. The real frontier had gunfighters, lawmen, outlaws and armed citizens, but the romantic gunslinger familiar today owes plenty to fiction and cinema.
Hired Gun
Someone employed for their ability to use force or a weapon.
The expression eventually moved beyond its literal meaning and can now describe someone brought in because of their specialist skills.
Outlaw
Originally someone outside the protection of the law, although in Western culture the word became strongly associated with criminals, fugitives and bandits.
The outlaw eventually became almost as important to Western mythology as the cowboy himself.
Posse
A group assembled to assist law enforcement, particularly in pursuing criminals or fugitives.
The term comes from posse comitatus, referring to the power to summon local people to assist in maintaining order.
Today, of course, posse can simply mean your group of friends.
Sheriff
An elected or appointed law-enforcement official responsible for a county or similar jurisdiction.
The sheriff became one of the great stock characters of Western films, although the office itself is very real and continues across much of the United States today.
Deputy
Someone authorised to act on behalf of another official, most famously a deputy sheriff.
In Western stories, the sheriff rarely seems to get far without one.
Bounty Hunter
Someone who pursues a person in return for a financial reward.
Bounties and professional manhunters have become a major part of Western storytelling, although the reality was often less glamorous than the films suggest.
Boot Hill
A nickname given to cemeteries in several frontier towns.
The popular explanation is that the people buried there died with their boots on, although the history varies between individual places that used the name.
Either way, Boot Hill became one of the darker expressions associated with Western mythology.
Six-Shooter
A revolver capable of holding six cartridges.
The six-shooter became inseparable from the classic image of the Western gunfighter, even though revolvers came in numerous designs and capacities.
Iron
Slang for a firearm.
Expressions such as packing iron became associated with carrying a gun.
It's another example of the colourful euphemisms that Western fiction helped preserve.
Branding Iron
A heated metal tool used to mark livestock with an identifying brand.
On large ranges where cattle belonging to different ranches could mix together, brands provided a practical way of identifying ownership.
The ranch brand itself eventually became one of the most recognisable pieces of Western graphic design.
Roundup
The process of gathering livestock together.
Cowboys might round up cattle for branding, counting, sorting or moving them elsewhere.
Today we use round up for gathering almost anything together.
Stampede
When a group of animals suddenly begins running together, often uncontrollably.
For cowboys managing a large cattle herd, a stampede could be extremely dangerous.
The word has since become a general term for any sudden rush of people or animals.
Maverick
Originally associated with an unbranded animal, particularly an unbranded calf.
The term became linked with Texas rancher Samuel Maverick and eventually developed a much broader meaning.
Today, a maverick is an independent-minded person who doesn't follow the crowd.
That one feels particularly BRAG.
Open Range
Large areas of unfenced land where livestock could graze.
Before widespread fencing transformed much of the West, cattle could be driven and grazed across enormous stretches of open country.
The open range became central to both the reality and romance of cowboy life.
Cattle Drive
Moving a herd of cattle over a significant distance, often from ranching areas to railway towns or markets.
The great cattle drives of the nineteenth century helped create much of the cowboy mythology we recognise today.
But the reality involved long days, difficult weather, dangerous river crossings, restless cattle and plenty of dust.
Trail Boss
The person in charge of a cattle drive.
The trail boss organised the crew, chose routes, managed the herd and made important decisions along the way.
If the drive went wrong, there was a good chance everyone would be looking in his direction.
Cookie
A nickname sometimes given to the cook, particularly the cook responsible for the chuck wagon.
Considering how important food was after a long day on the trail, Cookie wasn't somebody you'd want to upset.
Dude
The meaning of dude has changed considerably.
In the West, it could refer to an easterner or city person unfamiliar with ranch life, particularly someone visiting the West.
The later dude ranch catered to visitors who wanted to experience ranch and cowboy life.
Today, dude has travelled about as far from the cattle trail as a word possibly could.
Howdy
Probably the most famous cowboy greeting of all.
Howdy developed from “How do ye?” or “How do you do?” and became particularly associated with the American South and West.
It's simple, friendly and still very much alive.
We approve.
Much Obliged
A way of saying thank you or expressing gratitude.
It's not exclusively Western, but it became firmly associated with the polite, understated speech of cowboy characters in popular culture.
Reckon
To think, suppose or believe.
As in:
“Reckon it's going to rain?”
The word is far older and geographically broader than cowboy culture, but it became a familiar part of Western dialogue.
Ain't
A contraction used in informal English for expressions such as am not, is not and are not.
Again, not cowboy-specific, but you'd struggle to write stereotypical Western dialogue without eventually encountering it.
This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us
Possibly the ultimate Western movie line.
It's become shorthand for the confrontation between two rivals who simply cannot coexist.
Whether actual cowboys spent much time dramatically announcing this to one another is another matter entirely.
Sometimes the legend is more fun.
Why Cowboy Slang Still Lives On
Cowboy vocabulary didn't disappear when the great cattle drives ended.
Some expressions became part of everyday American English. Others survived through country music, rodeo, Western novels, television and cinema. Words borrowed from Spanish remind us of the enormous influence Mexican and vaquero culture had on the development of the American West.
And some are simply too good to lose.
Maverick. Desperado. Buckaroo. Sidewinder. Pistolero.
They're words with character.
Like Western clothing itself, cowboy language has travelled far beyond the time and place where much of it developed. It has been borrowed, reinvented and romanticised by generations that continue to find something compelling in the mythology of the West.
At Brag Jeans, that's exactly the world we're interested in — the denim, workwear, characters, language and attitude that continue to make Western culture unmistakable.
So next time somebody calls you a yellow-bellied sidewinder, you'll at least know they're probably not being friendly.
Much obliged for reading.
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