rancho

plural ranchos · plural ranchoes

1. USarchaicregionalA simple hut, such as one with posts, covered with branches or thatch, where herdsmen or farm workers would lodge at night.
2. USarchaicregionalA large grazing farm where horses and cattle are raised; distinguished from hacienda, a cultivated farm or plantation.

   The nearest house, they told us, was a rancho, or cattle-farm, about three miles off.

   1840, Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast