how to say “cowboy” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-1.m4a” /]קָאוּבּוֹי, בּוֹקֵר, רֹעֵה בָּקָר

Years after the cowboy on TV dazzled the American imagination, he arrived in Israel and was termed, in Hebrew, קאובוי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-2.m4a” /].

But the real-live off-screen cowboy – the herder of free-range cattle – has a proper Hebrew term of his own – בוקר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-3.m4a” /].

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-4.m4a” /]בואו לחוות הבוקרים בגליל!

Come to the cowboy(s) ranch in the Galilee!

Note that although spelled the same way, בוקר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-3.m4a” /] meaning cowboy and בוקר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-5.m4a” /] meaning morning have different pronunciations. Thus the southern Israeli kibbutz, the burial place of Paula and David Ben Gurion, is called שדה בוקר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-6.m4a” /], not שדה בוקר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-7.m4a” /].

בוקר meaning cowboy comes from the word בקר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-8.m4a” /] meaning cattle. In fact, another term for cowboy (cow-herder, to be more precise) is רועה בקר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/רועה-בקר-9.m4a” /] – literally, a herder of cattle.