Do you pronounce rodeo “ro-dee-o” or “ro-day-o”? Frank Dean Omaha, Nebraska The proper Spanish pronunciation is ro-day-o. But like our use of a lot of Spanish words, we gringos put our own brand on ’em. So we call it ro-dee-o. Other examples are: vaquero (cowboy) into buckaroo, and vamos (let’s go) into vamoose. The roping style of taking a turn around the saddle horn after lassoing a steer was called dar la vuelta (to take a turn). Gringo cowboys corrupted that into dolly welter,


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