lobo

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish lobo (“wolf”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Latin lupus (“wolf”),^[2][3][7][8] through its accusative lupum.^[4] The Latin word comes from the same Indo-European root as wolf.^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The grey wolf of the south-western United States: Merriam-Webster gives 1839 as the first known use,^[5] and Dictionary.com 1830–40.^[9] The Dictionary of American Regional English quotes Large Lobos wolf from a report of 1852,^[10] Barnhart dates the word to 1854 in American English,^[4] and the OED's first quotation is from 1859, in S. F. Baird's Mammals of North America.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word is chiefly Texan and south-western;^[10][2] in Texas the larger wolf was called the lobo wolf to set it apart from the coyote, and in Utah the name was used of the local wolf.^[10] Some speakers have also used it of the coyote.^[10] By folk etymology it gave loafer, or loafer wolf, another name for the same animal.^{[5][11][6][10]} Used of people, a lone wolf or outsider, it appears in 1907 in O. Henry's Heart of the West;^[2][10] a 1939 guide to Montana explained it as a wolf that hunts alone, hence a solitary person.^[10] In 1940s Black American slang a lobo was an unattractive woman,^[12][10] in California slang of 1949 a gunman or thug,^[10] and the New Partridge records it as a word for marijuana from 1984.^[13]

Timeline

• 1839 – the grey wolf of the south-western United States.^[5]
• 1907 – of a person, a loner or outcast.^[2][10]
• 1942 – in Black American slang, an unattractive woman.^[12]
• 1984 – slang, marijuana.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Western US) The gray wolf, especially the large grey wolf of the south-western United States: At night the ranchers listened for lobos.^{[5][2][8][6][14]}
2. (US slang) A loner or outsider.^[12][10]
3. (US slang) An unattractive woman.^[12][10]

Related words

• wolf
• loafer
• lupine

Usage notes

The word is often used in the compound lobo wolf.^[1][10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
11. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
12. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin