Wrangler (profession)

In North America, a wrangler is someone employed to handle animals professionally, especially horses, but also other types of animals.

Wranglers also handle the horses and other animals during the making of motion pictures.

A dude-wrangler is a cowboy or guide that takes people (Dudes) on western-riding horseback trips.

In North America, a wrangler is also one who professionally searches for and/or handles particular products on film and television programs, and music videos, such as custom cars, or animals, or milk.

The word "wrangler" is derived from the Low German "wrangeln" meaning "to dispute" or "to wrestle." It was first documented in 1377. Its use as a noun was first recorded in 1547. Its reference to a "person in charge of horses or cattle" or "herder" was first recorded in 1888. Beginning in 1929, it was used as a proprietary name for a brand of jeans. This was copyrighted in 1947. [Onions, C.T. The Oxford Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. p. 1014.]

The historical British meaning of "wrangler" is a person who excels at debate. The title "wrangler" was, in fact, given to a student obtaining first class in the Cambridge Mathematics Tripos I examination. The student obtaining the highest marks used to be described as the "senior wrangler." These titles were officially abandoned by Cambridge University in 1909. The senior wrangler was the person who scored first, the second wrangler scored second, and so on, until the last person, who was called "the wooden spoon." [Online Etymology Dictionary, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=w&p=10 ]

References

See also

* Animal husbandry
* Cowboy
* Groom
* Herder
* Western riding
* Wrangler (disambiguation)
* Movie industry