what an amazing site. since it's all about etymologies of cowboy words i wonder if you would put up with my speculation that "cowboy" has nothing to do with cows or boys. you have to imagine someone from new england going out west in the early 1800's where he would encounter mexicans who called themselves caballeros. since that sounded like cah - bay with -ero tacked onto the end like a lot of spanish words, our gringo greenhorn just naturally assumed it meant cow boy, rather than horseman or even gentleman.