Citations:cowboyitis

Noun: "a desire to lead the life of a cowboy, e.g. to own or work on a ranch or wear stereotypical trappings such as a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, etc."

 * 1980, Paul A. Hutton, The Cowboy Hero review, Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, Number 3, Summer 1980, pages 321-322:
 * “Cowboyitis” strikes down men and women of all ages, educational backgrounds, and professions. The stockbroker, insurance agent, and college professor are as likely to be victims as the truckdriver, construction worker, or cab driver. This social disease is epidemic both east and west of the Rocky Mountains and the telltale symptoms are are well known. The stricken soul comes home from a hard day at work and slips into his faded Levis (preferably a size or two too small) and shiny Tony Lama boots. With an oversized Stetson daringly tilted back on his head he settles into an overstuffed easy chair, lights up a Marlboro, flips open a tall can of Coors, and watches the Denver Broncos brutalize some hapless opponent on the television.
 * 1999, Mark Zeligman, George Brett: A Royal Hero, page 59:
 * He owns a horse, a Morgan filly named Funquest Siri, and soon he'll own a ranch near Kansas City (he won't say where). Moreover, Brett has the chafed fanny and blistered memories of riding a real roundup back to his claim.
 * It's not unreasonable to credit some of Brett's cowboyitis for his more relaxed personality since the baseball strike ended.
 * 2007, Jan Young, The Orange Slipknot, page 27:
 * Seth laughed. "We must be nuts—we spend all day looking at the south end of a northbound cow!"
 * Ben give a half-smile. "Well, my dad's never cared much about money."
 * "Course not. He's here for the same reason as me and all the rest. We've all been bit by the same bug—we've got cowboy-i-tis."

Noun: "an obsession with freedom and/or reckless disregard for the rule of law"

 * 1986, Robert G. Athearn, The Mythic West in Twentieth-Century America, page 58:
 * He savored the term frontier and asserted that to the genuine American it was "the dearest word in all the world." He was another of those who stressed the notion that authentic Americanism was largely a frontier product, albeit a characteristic that had been diluted, as Hough put it, "by far less worthy strains," but one, he hoped, that still showed some signs of strength in the West.
 * For those who eschewed the printed word, there was Theodore Roosevelt, a converted easterner who was afflicted by a terminal case of cowboyitis, who now railed at authorities for their refusal to let him charge up Teutonic San Juan hills and corral the kaiser.
 * 1999 28 February, David Chase & Frank Renzullia, "", episode 1-8 of :
 * Tony Soprano: People do that shit, they want to get caught.


 * Christopher Moltisanti: Oh, I wanna get caught?


 * Tony Soprano: Yeah, you wanna get caught. I've seen it before. That's fucking cowboyitis. You wanna be a big bad guy, Christopher?

Noun: "physical ailments resulting from ranch work"

 * 2016, Slim Randles, "Home Country", Freestone County Times, 23 November 2016, page 2-D:
 * On a morning like this, his daily dose of "cowboyitis" lets itself be felt. That aching hip? Oh, he remembers when that colt dumped him into the rockpile, putting him on crutches for two months.

Noun: "an infatuation with or attraction to cowboys"

 * 2002, Jennie Marie Leis, Life, Love, and Cowboys, page 32:
 * Cowboyitis starts as just an innocent crush but soon it progresses so that the minute you see a cowboy hat your pulse quickens and you immediately focus on the form beneath it.