drover

English

Alternative forms

• drovier (archaic)

Etymology

From drove +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɹəʊ.və/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɹoʊ.vəɹ/
• Rhymes: -əʊvə(ɹ)

Noun

drover (plural drovers)

1. A person who drives animals, especially cattle or sheep, over long distances.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     Why, that's spoken like an honest drovier: so they sell bullocks.

   • 1893, W. S. Gilbert, Utopia, Limited, Act I:

     Daily driven / (Wife as drover) / Ill you've thriven-- / Ne'er in clover.

   • 2024 October 5, Carly Earl, “‘I lost my phone in the first week’: a new generation of drovers in outback Queensland”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Little is the modern-day Buchanon. In 2013 he oversaw the Brinkworth drive, taking 20,000 cattle owned by South Australian pastoralist Tom Brinkworth from western Queensland to southern NSW, separating them into smaller mobs and employing contract drovers to assist.

Translations

person who drives animals

• Czech: honák m
• Dutch: veedrijver (nl) m
• German: Viehtreiber (de) m, Viehtreiberin (de) f
• Hungarian: hajcsár (hu), marhahajcsár (hu), birkahajcsár
• Italian: mandriano (it) m, bovaro (it) m
• Maori: kaiwhiu, kaiwhiuwhiu
• Ottoman Turkish: بقار (bakkar)
• Russian: заго́нщик (ru) m (zagónščik), гуртовщи́к (ru) m (gurtovščík), перего́нщик скота́ m (peregónščik skotá), пого́нщик (ru) m (pogónščik)