vaquero

From Spanish vaquero (“cowherd”), from vaca (“cow”).

vaquero (plural vaqueros or vaqueroes)

1. (Southwestern US) A cowboy; a herdsman.
   • 1925, Quarterly of the Society of California Pioneers, page 232,

     A day or two before a number of vaqueroes set out for the Santa Cruz Mountains and lassoed a very big grizzly.

   • 1997, Jane Clements Monday, Betty Bailey Colley, Voices from the Wild Horse Desert: The Vaquero Families of the King and Kenedy Ranches, University of Texas Press, page ix,

     Voices from the Wild Horse Desert is the story of vaquero families who have lived and worked on the prominent King and Kenedy Ranches of South Texas for six generations. Vaqueros (Mexican cowboys) are the highly skilled work force that cares for and works the cattle day by day.

   • 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster 2014, p. 11:

     Of course the vaqueros do not help: because of his weight and his high voice they call him Don Castrado behind his back.

   • 2015, Danilo H. Figueredo, Revolvers and Pistolas, Vaqueros and Caballeros: Debunking the Old West, ABC-CLIO (Praeger), page 50,

     Cattle drives became common between Mexico and California and Mexico and Texas. Vaqueros were the drivers. In time, as vaqueros worked for a particular ranch or within the confines of a particular territory, regional styles evolved. In essence, two types were prominent: that of the California vaquero and that of the vaquero from Texas.

     The Texas vaquero was identified as a free spirit, lived out in the open range, and went from ranch to ranch as work opportunities surfaced. The Californian vaquero remained loyal to a ranch or ranching family.

• caballero
• charro

From Vulgar Latin *vaccārius (“cowherder, rancher”); equivalent to vaca (“cow”) +‎ -ero. Compare Portuguese vaqueiro, Catalan vaquer, French vacher, Italian vaccaio, Romanian văcar.

vaquero (feminine singular vaquera, masculine plural vaqueros, feminine plural vaqueras)

1. cowboy

vaquero m (plural vaqueros)

1. cowboy
2. (in the plural) jeans
3. A kind of bird:
   1. squirrel cuckoo (Piaya cayana)
   2. laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans)
   3. lesser ground cuckoo (Morococcyx erythropygus)

• (jeans): tejano
• (squirrel cuckoo): aguatudo, cuapaxcle, cuco ardilla, cuco ardilla común, chicura, chile ancho, guaco, pájaro bobo, piscoy, ticuyo colorado
• (laughing falcon): guace, guaco, guaco vaquero, guaicurú, halcón guaco, halcón reidor, halcón risueño, halieto, llamanorte, pájaro caballero, pájaro vaquero, valdivia
• (lesser ground cuckoo): correcamino, cuclillo chiflador, cuclillo sabanero, cuclillo terrestre, cuco bobo, escatuto, faisán, gallina boba, gallina ciega, paisano

• guaco vaquero
• pájaro vaquero
• vaquero grande
• vaquero ojirrojo

• → English: buckaroo, buckeroo

• charro
• gaucho

• Schoenhals, Louise C. (1988) A Spanish - English Glossary of Mexican Flora and Fauna‎, Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 487