Learn English – Etymology of “Cowboy” as a bad workman / builder

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Where did the word "Cowboy" come from in reference to a builder/tradesman who produces shoddy work or overcharges for the same?

I honestly can't remember hearing the word used in this context before the TV show, Father Ted, and after that it was everywhere!

Best Answer

It is an extension of the original meaning that refers to the more wild aspects of cowboy's life:

Cowboy (n.):

  • 1725, "boy who tends to cows," from cow (n.) + boy. Sense in Western U.S. is from 1849; in figurative use by 1942 for "brash and reckless young man" (as an adjective meaning "reckless," from 1920s).

(Etymonline)

Cowboy builder refers to the term cowboy with the meaning of reckless, unreliable:

  • A house builder with no proper training or official qualifications who does work of a low standard.

(FT)

From the OED:

b. A boisterous or wild young man (see also quots. and drug-store cowboy). Also spec. a reckless or inconsiderate driver of a motor vehicle, esp. a lorry. slang (orig. U.S.).

Early usage examples:

1942 Amer. Speech XVII. 103/1 Cowboy, reckless driver. 1952 P. H. BONNER SPQR (1953) xx. 174 Two very chic girls..were sitting on bar stools..with a typical Via Veneto cow~boy in sports jacket and flannel slacks. 1954 in P. G. Hollowell Lorry Driver (1968) vii. 191 Cowboy, a reckless driver. 1958 E. DUNDY Dud Avocado I. vi. 98 One of those drugstore-cowboy-motorcycle types, just past their first juvenile delinquency. 1959 News Chron. 7 Dec. 5/2 Coffee bar cowboys..are the teenagers with black jackets and fast motor cyclists who gather in cafés. 1964 Sunday Times 23 Aug. 1/1 By slogging, an experienced haulage driver can earn perhaps £30 a week. He will not touch the £16-a-week job. So ‘the cowboys’ take overthe new boys ‘just off minis’, the sacked ‘C’ licence drivers, the rough-necks, the maniacs.

Source: The Straight Dope