Why 'cowboys' when we refer to useless builders or other such people?

[ganesh]

My daugher brought this up the other day and I couldn't say why we call them cowboys.

[bigfoot3000]

That's actually a great question, one that I'm still looking for the answer for.

[brionon]

Here today and gone tomorrow,maybe ?

[Quizmonster]

Cowboy, meaning a man involved in cattle-ranching, dates back to the mid-19th century, its original significance being a lad in Britain who tended cows. However, the meaning that comes closest to what we intend when we call a tradesman that nowadays is the one from the 18th-century USA.
Here's an appropriate quote from 1775: "Bandits consisting of lawless villains within the British lines have received the name of cowboys and skinners." Given that 'skin' can also mean 'swindle' or 'fleece', I think it's pretty clear where the idea came from.

[bigfoot3000]

I've literally been halfway around the world searching for the origins but all i find are the definitions!
Someone must know!

[bigfoot3000]

Thanks quizmonster!

[Quizmonster]

My pleasure, BF.

[beso]

What term should we use when refering to a dodgey cattle herder?

[Quizmonster]

Why not use another wonderful American term meaning a cheat or swindler, which even has a cattle suggestion - ie horn - WITHIN it...hornswoggler?

[Playbill]

I heard that it is because after cowboys had driven a heard of cattle to market they were paid off and had no further work until the next cattle drive. So they took on construction work; but as they were not skilled at it the work was second rate. So bad building work was done by COWBOYS.

[Quizmonster]

The earliest recorded use of the word cowboy to mean a man involved in herding and driving cattle dates back only to the 1840s. So, it may well be true that they often had to work as inexperienced builders, but the 1775 quote I offered earlier predates that by some seventy years. Perhaps, therefore, a bit of both ideas gave us the modern use of the word.

[puternut]

Just as an aside I heard of - but didnt see - a building firm of 'Patel & Co' (or similar)

There slogan was 'You've tried the cowboys . . . . now try the Indians'