buckaroo

English

WOTD – 30 May 2025

Pronunciation

Buckaroo-style cowboy boots (sense 2.2) have distinctive tapered heels.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌbʌkəˈɹuː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌbʌkəˈɹu/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː
• Hyphenation: buck‧a‧roo

Etymology 1

Modified from Spanish vaquero (“cowboy”), with the spelling influenced by buck (“(noun) male antelope, deer, etc.; adventurous or high-spirited young man; (verb) of a horse, etc.: to leap upward arching its back, coming down with head low and forelegs stiff, forcefully kicking its hind legs upward”). Doublet of vaquero.

cognates

• Early Medieval Latin vaccārius (“cowherd”)
• French vacher
• Late Latin baccalārius (“landless serf; cowherd (?)”) (Merovingian)

Noun

buckaroo (plural buckaroos) (US)

1. (also attributive) A cowboy; specifically, a working cowboy who generally does not participate in rodeos.
   • 2005 September 2, Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana, 00:51:25 from the start, in Brokeback Mountain, Universal City, Calif.: Focus Features, →OCLC:

     No thanks, cowboy. If I was to let every rodeo hand I pulled a bull off of buy me liquor, I'd have been an alcoholic long ago. Pullin' bulls off of you buckaroos is just my job. So save your money for your next entry fee, cowboy.

2. (by extension)
   1. One who adopts a distinctive style of cowboy attire and heritage.

      Many cowboy poets have a buckaroo look and feel about them.

   3. A style of cowboy boot with a high heel tapered at the back.
3. (Western US, figurative) A headstrong, reckless person; a hothead.

   Don’t run in looking for a fight like some kind of buckaroo.

Alternative forms

• buckayro (obsolete)
• buckeroo

Derived terms

• buckarette
• -eroo (possibly)

Translations

cowboy — see cowboy

one who adopts a distinctive style of cowboy attire and heritage

• Finnish: buckaroo
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

style of cowboy boot with a high heel tapered at the back

• Finnish: buckaroo-saapas
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

headstrong, reckless person — see hothead

Etymology 2

Probably a fanciful elaboration of buck, influenced by buckaroo (etymology 1).

Noun

buckaroo (plural buckaroos)

1. (US, slang) Synonym of buck (“a dollar”)

   Synonyms: buckaroonie, (US, slang) smackeroo

   That’ll be twenty buckaroos, buddy.

Derived terms

• buckaroonie

Translations

synonym of buck — see dollar

See also

• smackeroonie, smackeroony, smackeroonies

Further reading

• cowboy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia