Vocabulary - Definitions and Context
- Buckaroo:
- a nickname for cowboys
Context: Hey there, Buckaroo, what’s the name of your horse? - Cattle drive:
- when you bring a herd of cattle from one place to another
Context: From 1865 to the mid-1890's cowboys and vaqueros brought about 5 million Texas longhorn north on cattle drives. - Chaparreras:
- the Spanish word for the protection vaqueros wore over their pants to protect their legs
Context: Vaqueros used hides from cattle to make chaparreras. - Chaps:
- the English word that came from "chaparrereas"
Context: Cowboys need leather chaps to protect their legs from mesquite trees and prickly pear cactus. - Charreada:
- the original rodeo, started in Mexico
Context: Vaquero skills get celebrated each year in the charreada part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. - Corrals:
- enclosures built to keep cattle inside
Context: Part of a cowboy’s job is to fix corrals when horses or cows break them. - Cowboys:
- men who have jobs taking care of cattle, horses, and working on ranches
Context: Real cowboys don't fight bad guys. That's just in the movies! - Drovers:
- people who have the job of herding cattle from one place to another
Context: Cowboys worked hard as drovers as they herded cattle along the dusty Chisholm Trail. - Herd:
- a collection of the same kind of animals traveling and/or living together
Context: Sometimes a crew of 12 to 15 cowboys and vaqueros could drive a herd as big as 3000 head of cattle. That's a lot of cows! - Kineños:
- what the vaqueros are called who work on the King Ranch in south Texas
Context: The King Ranch, the biggest cattle ranch in the world, calls its vaqueros "Kineños." - Lasso:
- a long rope with a loop on one end used for catching cows
Context: The cowboy threw his lasso and hooked the longhorn with one try! - Lazo:
- the Spanish word for "lasso" and where the word "lasso" came from
Context: The vaquero flung his lazo, stopping the steer instantly in his tracks. - Longhorn:
- cattle brought to Texas from Spain in the late 1500's
Context: Texas had lots of longhorn and the rest of the country wanted beef, so vaqueros and cowboys brought the longhorn up north to sell. - Rodeo:
- a public show of cowboy skills
Context: Roping cattle is a rodeo competition that shows off something cowboys do in real life. - Round up:
- gathering cattle together
Context: Each morning before the cattle drive could start on its way, cowboys had to round up all the cows. - Stampede:
- a sudden rush of scared cattle that act crazy and could be dangerous
Context: Suddenly, there was a stampede and the vaquero feared his horse might be speared by the longhorn. - Trail boss:
- the boss on a cattle drive
Context: The trail boss is to cowboys as the captain of the ship is to sailors. - Vaqueros:
- the original cowboys who already lived here when Texas belonged to Spain
Context: Vaqueros started herding cattle in the late 1500’s and worked for missions and presidios.