cowhand

[kou-hand]

noun

1. a person employed on a cattle ranch; cowboy or cowgirl.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cowhand¹

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90; cow ¹ + hand

Example Sentences

Born in Nebraska and raised in South Dakota, Leahy worked in his youth as a cowhand, a soda jerk and a clerk in a trading post.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

They were called “cowboys,” and white cattle workers were called “cowhands,” he said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Houston is also home to the rodeo, the country’s oldest Black trail ride, and Black cowboy culture — in 1800s Texas, one in four cowhands were Black.

Read more on Seattle Times

From time to time, diverting visitors wander into Faye’s campsite — friendly neighbors with a dinner invitation, Indigenous cowhands with an unusual request — their whimsical intrusions adding flavor to an unyieldingly spare story.

Read more on New York Times

Characters discuss how Hollywood has “whitewashed” the history of Black cowhands, and they live under threat of their stables being closed because of encroaching gentrification.

Read more on Washington Post

Related Words

• herder 
• rancher