On this Wikipedia the language cowboy stew are at the top of the page across from the article title. A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks.

The cowboy has deep historic roots tracing back to Spain and the earliest European settlers of the Americas. Over the centuries, differences in terrain and climate, and the influence of cattle-handling traditions from multiple cultures, created several distinct styles of equipment, clothing and animal handling. The English word cowboy has an origin from several earlier terms that referred to both age and to cattle or cattle-tending work. The English word cowboy was derived from vaquero, a Spanish word for an individual who managed cattle while mounted on horseback. Vaquero was derived from vaca, meaning “cow”, which came from the Latin word vacca. By 1849 “cowboy” had developed its modern sense as an adult cattle handler of the American West.

Variations on the word appeared later. Cowhand” appeared in 1852, and “cowpoke” in 1881, originally restricted to the individuals who prodded cattle with long poles to load them onto railroad cars for shipping. Today, “cowboy” is a term common throughout the west and particularly in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, “buckaroo” is used primarily in the Great Basin and California, and “cowpuncher” mostly in Texas and surrounding states. Equestrianism required skills and an investment in horses and equipment rarely available to or entrusted to a child, though in some cultures boys rode a donkey while going to and from pasture. Because of the time and physical ability needed to develop necessary skills, both historic and modern cowboys often began as an adolescent. If not crippled by injury, cowboys may handle cattle or horses for a lifetime.

Cowboy” was used during the American Revolution to describe American fighters who opposed the movement for independence. In the Tombstone, Arizona, area during the 1880s, the term “cowboy” or “cow-boy” was used pejoratively to describe men who had been implicated in various crimes. The origins of the cowboy tradition come from Spain, beginning with the hacienda system of medieval Spain. The arrival of horses was particularly significant, as equines had been extinct in the Americas since the end of the prehistoric ice age. Horses quickly multiplied in America and became crucial to the success of the Spanish and later settlers from other nations. As English-speaking traders and settlers expanded westward, English and Spanish traditions, language and culture merged to some degree. The arrival of English-speaking settlers in Texas began in 1821.