Editing Cowboy (section)

===California and Pacific region===
{{See also|Vaquero}}
The vaquero, the Spanish or Mexican cowboy who worked with young, untrained horses, arrived in the 18th century and flourished in [[Alta California]] and bordering territories during the [[Spanish Colonial period]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stewart |first1=Kara L. |title=The Vaquero Way |url=http://www.horsechannel.com/western-horse-training/vaquero-way-17722.aspx |website=Horse Illustrated |access-date=July 27, 2019 |date=November 16, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103050504/http://www.horsechannel.com/western-horse-training/vaquero-way-17722.aspx |archive-date=January 3, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Settlers from the United States did not enter California in significant numbers until after the [[Mexican–American War]], and most early settlers were miners rather than livestock ranchers, leaving livestock-raising largely to the Spanish and Mexican people who chose to remain in California. The California vaquero or buckaroo, unlike the Texas cowboy, was considered a highly skilled worker, who usually stayed on the same ranch where he was born or had grown up and raised his own family there. In addition, the geography and climate of much of California was dramatically different from that of Texas, allowing more intensive grazing with less open range, plus cattle in California were marketed primarily at a regional level, without the need (nor, until much later, even the logistical possibility) to be driven hundreds of miles to railroad lines. Thus, a horse- and livestock-handling culture remained in California and the Pacific Northwest that retained a stronger direct Spanish influence than that of Texas. The modern distinction between ''vaquero'' and ''buckaroo'' within American English may also reflect the parallel differences between the California and Texas traditions of western horsemanship.<ref name=free>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vaquero |title= Vaquero. |work= American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language |date=2009| publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company}}</ref>
[[File:Wade Saddle.jpg|thumb|upright|A "Wade" saddle, popular with working ranch Buckaroo tradition riders, derived from vaquero saddle designs]]

====Buckaroos====
Some cowboys of the California tradition were dubbed ''buckaroos'' by English-speaking settlers. The words "buckaroo" and ''vaquero'' are still used on occasion in the [[Great Basin]], parts of California and, less often, in the [[Pacific Northwest]]. Elsewhere, the term "cowboy" is more common.<ref name="Buckaroos">{{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ncrhtml/crview03.html|title=Buckaroos: Views of a Western Way of Life|work=Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945–1982
|publisher=Library of Congress|year=1980|access-date=2010-08-06}}</ref>

The word ''buckaroo'' is generally believed to be an anglicized version of ''vaquero'' and shows phonological characteristics compatible with that origin.<ref name=cassidy1/><ref name=cassidy2>{{cite journal|last=Cassidy|first=F. G. and A. A. Hill|title=Buckaroo Once More|journal=American Speech|date=Summer 1979|volume=54|issue=2|doi=10.2307/455216 |jstor=455216|pages=151–153|publisher=Duke University Press}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name=Gonzalez>{{cite journal |last=González|first=Félix Rodríguez|title=Spanish Contribution to American English Wordstock: An Overview|journal=Atlantis|date=December 2001|volume=23|issue=2|pages=83–90|publisher=Aedean: Asociación española de estudios anglo-americanos{{subscription required}}}}</ref><ref name=Smead>{{cite book|last=Smead|first=Ronald K|title=Vocabulario Vaquero/Cowboy Talk: A Dictionary of Spanish Terms from the American West|year=2005|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|location=Norman|isbn=978-0-8061-3631-8|page=30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MR4SY5n3_L8C }}</ref> ''Buckaroo'' first appeared in American English in 1827.<ref name=Merriam>{{cite web|title=Buckaroo|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buckaroo|work=Merriam-Webster |date=n.d. |access-date=August 29, 2013}}</ref>  The word may also have developed with influences from the English word "buck" or [[bucking]], the behavior of young, untrained horses.<ref name=cassidy2/><!-- @ p. 152. --> In 1960, one etymologist suggested that ''buckaroo'' derives, through {{langx|gul|buckra}}, from the [[Ibibio language|Ibibio]] and {{langx|efi|mbakara}}, meaning "white man, master, boss".<ref name=mason>{{cite journal|last=Mason|first=Julian|title=The Etymology of 'Buckaroo'|journal=American Speech|date=February 1960|volume=35|issue=1|pages=51–55|jstor=453613|publisher=Duke University Press|doi=10.2307/453613}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Although that derivation was later rejected, another possibility advanced was that "buckaroo" was a [[pun]] on ''vaquero'', blending both Spanish and African sources.<ref name=cassidy1>{{cite journal|last=Cassidy|first=F. G.|title=Another Look at Buckaroo|journal=American Speech|date=Spring 1978|volume=53|issue=1|pages=49–51|doi=10.2307/455339|publisher=Duke University Press|jstor=455339}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name=cassidy2/>