cowboy

What it means

1. countableuncountableA man who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.

   There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].”

   1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock

2. countableuncountableA man who identifies with cowboy culture, including wearing a cowboy hat and being a fan of country and western music.
3. countableobsoleteuncountableA young lad employed to tend to cattle.

   Mr. Consadine had scarcely finished the sentence when he saw his cow-boy running up the street, shouting and crying aloud that the best cow in the inch field was lost and gone, and nobody knew what had become of her, or could give the least tidings of her.

   1828, T. Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South or Ireland, volume II, London: John Murray, page 312

In a sentence

There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].”

1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock

Where it comes from

PIE word *gʷṓws From cow + boy. More on Wikipedia.