American Culture: Cowboys

Americans still think of cowboys as honest, independent and strong men. This romantic view of the American cowboy comes more from films and books than from real life. People think of cowboys as wearing blue jeans, cowboy boots and a special large hat called a stetson. In the US, people sometimes go on vacations where they do the work of a cowboy.
A western is a film about cowboys.
Cowboys and Indians is a game played by children who act the part of cowboys and Native Americans (Indians) as they have seen them in westerns.

Desperate Dan

A character in the the British comic The Dandy. He is a very large, friendly cowboy who eats very large meat pies called “cow’s pies”. Dan does not realize how strong he is, and he often breaks things by accident.

* Cowboy Boots

Cowboy boots are high leather boots that are popular in the US. They have pointed toes, fairly high heels and they are decorated with stitching. They are not only worn by cowboys but by country and western singers as well.

More Cowboy-related Words:

- A lasso (also lariat in Am E) is a rope with one end which can be tightened in a circle (noose), used especially in the US for catching horses and cattle.
To lasso (verb) to catch with a lasso.
The cowboy lassoed the wild horse.

- Line dancing is a type of US dance done to country and western music. People dance while standing in lines facing the same direction, and wear American style clothes such as stetsons and cowboy boots. In the late 1990s line dancing became very popular in the UK.

- A Western is a film about life in the western United States during the period of exploration and development. A spaghetti Western is a low-budget Western movie produced by a European (especially an Italian) film company.

- A gunfight is a fight between two or more people, using especially hand-held guns. The stereotype of a gunfight in an old western film is of two men who stand in in an empty street facing each other. The one who is quickest "on the draw" (= in taking out his gun and shooting) usually wins.