Buckaroo: supposed African origin

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>To piggyback on Larry's comment, here's another smidgen, this time from
>Romon Adams's _Western Words_ (hardcover Univ. of Oklahoma Press, now
>paperback Hippocrene Books 1998), p. 21:
>
>BUCKAROO
>A term used in the Northwest for cowboy. The terms baquero, buckhara, and
>buckayro, each a perversion of either the Spanish word vaquero or boyero,
>are also used (Philip A. Rollins, The Cowboy [NY, Charles Scribner's Sons,
>1936], 39).
>
>The syntax of this entry implies that boyero is something other than
>Spanish; maybe Rollins had something African up his sleeve and was unable
>or unwilling to de-sleeve it.

I think the syntax here is simply poor or wrong. I believe "boyero" is
Spanish, = "ox-driver" or "cowherd".

-- Doug Wilson