Dictionary

cybercowboy en · NOUN

Etymology

From cyber- + cowboy.

Meanings

1. A character who carries out contract work, especially of a legally dubious nature, in cyberspace.
   • ...from the voyeur and beau, through the private dick and the hobo to the cybercowboy and the cyborg. 2000, Cutting Edge, Digital desires: language, identity and new technologies:
   • Unlike the cyborg and cybercowboy, technoman Lenny is a sad figure who cannot move on. Despite Faith's rejections he loiters about the club where she works... 2002, Amanda Fernbach, Fantasies of fetishism: from decadence to the post-human:
   • ...ruthlessly competitive with each other, these corporations hire cybercowboys like Case to do this risky work for them. 2003, Frederick Buell, From apocalypse to way of life: environmental crisis in the American century:
2. (informal) An Internet user.
   • Within the week he upgraded his PC, got a modem, downloaded Netscape, and became a cybercowboy. 2001, Jim Sterne, World Wide Web marketing:
   • ...shares not a little with libertarian cybercowboys of the technosphere like John Barlow and Mitch Kapor... 1995, Maurice Berger, Brian Wallis, Simon Watson, Carrie Mae Weems, Constructing masculinity:

Forms

Synonyms

cybersurfer (Internet user) · cybernaut (Internet user) · netizen (Internet user)