meaning & usage for the word "maverick"
Hi Vasu
As I understand it, it was a cowboy term for a wild horse. These days it is used to mean anyone who does not "follow the herd" i.e. who goes his/her own way and "bucks" the trends, making decisions very different from what most people are doing. A "fashion maverick" is the woman who wears a barely there mini-dress to an event where every other woman is in a ball gown. It often (but NOT always) refers to someone who is successful because they are different . The mini-dress woman with great legs is a maverick. The overweight 75 year old in the mini just needs help. The speaker may or may not approve of the maverick's choice.
It means one who is unconventional and disdains, rebels against, and flouts accepted customs and social rules.
The usual etymology of maverick is that it is an eponym from the Texan Samuel Augustus Maverick. The etymology of the surname is unknown. In the coincident department, Sam Maverick's grandson, Maury Maverick, coined the word gobbledegook.
This website would help you:www.grevocabulary.org
Maverick was a cowboy who did not brand his cattle. So they became known as mavericks. Now the term applies to anyone who does not follow the herd. There was a story on Nightline or 20/20 about this. Maverick's grand daughter was interviewed. It turns out she is a big Obama supporter and has taken ownership of the term from McCain.
There was a story on Nightline... Maverick's grand daughter was interviewed.
His 82 year-old great-granddaughter Terralita Maverick was the one interviewed on Nightline. Of course, she didn't actually know him as he lived 1803-1870 and she wasn't born until about 1927.