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Cowboy vs Redneck - What's the difference?

cowboy | redneck |

As nouns the difference between cowboy and redneck

is that cowboy is a man who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West while redneck is an uneducated, unsophisticated, or poor caucasian person, typically used to describe residents (of any gender) of the rural Southern US.

As a verb cowboy

is to work as a cowboy, herding cattle.

cowboy

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A man who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1899, author=(Stephen Crane)
    • , title=, chapter=1 , passage=There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].”}}
  • A man who identifies with cowboy culture, including wearing a cowboy hat and being a fan of country and western music.
  • (label) A person who engages in reckless behavior, especially for the purpose of showing off.
  • A dishonest and/or incompetent independent tradesman.
  • A playing card of king rank.

    • Related terms

    * cowman

    Coordinate terms

    * cowgirl

    Hypernyms

    * cowhand * cowperson * cowpoke

    See also

    * cattleman * buckaroo

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To work as a cowboy, herding cattle.
  • * 1994 , Sherry Robinson, El Malpais, Mt. Taylor, and the Zuni Mountains: a hiking guide and history
    • Besides cowboying he worked at a small sawmill that cut logs into "four slabs and a tie" and sold ties to the railroad.
  • * 1995 , American Cowboy (volume 2, number 4, Nov-Dec 1995, page 26)
    • Derwood Bailey cowboyed for 50 cents a day, a noon meal, and a gallon of oats for his horse.
  • * 2003 , C. J. Hadley, Trappings of the Great Basin Buckaroo
    • I still had never ridden or cowboyed , and I wanted to learn something about it. I'd been making the damn saddles for years but didn't know how to use them.

    References

    * Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523 ----

    redneck

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (slang, pejorative) An uneducated, unsophisticated, or poor caucasian person, typically used to describe residents (of any gender Country Music Lyrics New Country Tunes) of the rural Southern US.
  • (slang) The nickname given to miners who wore red bandanas for identification during the West Virginia mine war of 1921. West Virginia Division of Culture and History
  • (UK, archaic) The nickname given to Roman Catholics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

    • Synonyms

    * cracker, hick, hillbilly, peckerwood, white trash

    Derived terms

    * redneckish * redneckism * rednecky

    References

    English ethnic slurs