| 词源 |
gaucho. Since the early 18th century gaucho has meant a cowboy of the South American pampas, often a mestizo of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry and always a skilled horseman and soldier with an independent spirt and a wander- lust. The gauchos have been in decline for over a century and so have the payadors, the singing minstrels of the plains, much of the plains now being farmed. Gauchos may take their name from Quechua Indian wahcha, “a vagabond or poor person,” but Arawak cachu, “comrade,” is a possibility, too. |