Western

A novel or film concerned with the opening up and civilizing of the American West; an epic theme featuring hunters and trackers, cowboys and Indians, horses, stagecoach and railroad, the cavalry, lawmen, women, the California goldrush, and dogs. Fenimore Cooper established a model in The Pioneers (1823), basing his Leatherstocking on the exploits of Daniel Boone. Davy Crockett and Kit Carson were similarly fictionalized; and journalist E Z C Judson (1828–86; pseudonym Ned Buntline) promoted Buffalo Bill Cody to mythic status as ‘the beau ideal of the plains’ in dime novels (from 1860), for which Prentiss Ingraham (1843–1904) later wrote over 200 Buffalo Bill stories. Cody's Wild West Show (from 1882) was a by-product. The railroad robbery by Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch in 1900 occasioned Edwin S Porter's film The Great Train Robbery (1903), beginning the great tradition of Western films, such as Stagecoach (1939), High Noon (1952), Shane (1953), and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). The Western film has drawn on 20th-c Western fiction by such writers as Zane Grey (1872–1939), and C E Mulford, creator of Hopalong Cassidy.

It also has a number of more specific meanings:

In geography and politics:

Western world refers to a particular group of countries, also referred to as the Occident Western culture refers to the culture that has developed in the Western world. Western, New York is the name of a town in Oneida County, New York. Western United States refers to the Western portion of the United States, sometimes referred to as the "American West"

In entertainment:

Western (genre), a literary and dramatic genre found in books, films, paintings, and television and radio programs throughout the 20th century. Educational institutions: Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo, Michigan Western Technical-Commercial School in Toronto, Ontario University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario Western Canada High School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada Western College Program Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut Western Theological Seminary Western Washington University Western University Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky

In finance:

Westernbank

In transportation:

Western Airlines, a defunct airline.