Jump to content

Dude

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dzzl (talk | contribs) at 05:19, 22 March 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Look up dude in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Traditionally a dude (pronounced /d(j)uːd/) is a dandy; a man who dresses flashily. But in recent years, the term has taken on a colloquial meaning at variance with that: it now means a male friend, mate, comrade, or associate. A dudette or a Dudie is a female friend, comrade, or associate, although increasingly, "dude" is being used as a gender-neutral address. Formerly, the word was associated with Western movies. The new usage entered the mainstream from California surfer slang from at least 1968,

referenced in the movie Easy Rider, and today is strongly associated with Generation X.

Scott F. Kiesling, a linguist from the University of Pittsburgh, states in a 2003 scholarly paper published in American Speech that "the term is used mainly in situations in which a speaker takes a stance of solidarity or camaraderie, but crucially in a nonchalant, not-too-enthusiastic manner ... The reason young men use this term is precisely that dude indexes this stance of cool solidarity. Such a stance is especially valuable for young men as they navigate cultural discourses of young masculinity, which simultaneously demand masculine solidarity, strict heterosexuality, and non-conformity."

In the 1960s and 1970s, "dude" was part of black slang used by both males and females in referring to a man. The term was used in some black "ghetto" novels of that era. In 1970s TV shows, like "Good Times" and "Sanford and Son", the term is used. Also, the term is frequently used in many black films of the 1970s. In the movie "Blacula" the title character is referred to by a woman as "the big dude".

Origins

There is no definitive origin of the word dude. The Compact Oxford Dictionary suggests it comes from a German dialect word meaning 'fool'. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang cites an 1877 reference in an unpublished private letter of the painter and sculptor known for Western themes, Frederick Remington: "Don't send me any more women or any more dudes," he told a correspondent who was sending him sketches. "Dude" first appeared in print in 1878. The word made the rounds of New York City slang of ca 1883, referring to a fastidiously sharp dresser, affecting sophistication. This is what the late 18th century British would have referred to as a "dandy", which brings us to the compelling theory that "dude" was actually derived from the "Doodle" of the song "Yankee Doodle".

Yankee Doodle went to town, A-riding on a pony.
Stuck a feather in his cap, and called it "macaroni"
Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle Dandy
Mind the music and the step, and with the girls be handy

The song was actually written by the British as an insult to the colonists during the French and indian war—the British soldiers have been decked out in their royal uniforms, and the colonists, or yankees, in rags and coonskin caps. So "Yankee Doodle Dandy" was a mocking take on colonial lack of sophistication. A "macaroni" was a British slang term for French or Italian attire, thus a man who had travelled to Paris or Rome, and adopted their style, affecting a high level of sophistication, was the definitive dandy. Yankee Doodle is so unsophisticated that when he sticks the feather in his cap and calls it "macaroni", he believes he is being fashionable. The British popularized the song during the Revolutionary War, but the colonists in their victory eventually embraced the song as their own, showing pride in their lack of affected sophistication (See Dr. Audra Himes analysis at YourDictionary).

The vogue word of 1883, was quickly applied to dressed-up city slickers, especially Easterners vacationing in the West, who affected elaborate 'Wild West' get-ups as paying visitors at a "dude ranch." The dude in "dude ranch" was a figure of mockery; an urban Easterner affecting the look and lifestyle of the Western cowboy, but only on a temporary basis (i.e.: during his vacation). This dude is a tourist, lacking authenticity, and not deserving of respect. How this term of mockery eventually came into use by 'surfer dudes' is unclear. Did the surfers adopt this term of mockery, just as the colonial dandies had, turning it into a sincere term of respect for each other? Or was it transformed by actual cowboys, and then later adopted by the surfers?

Interestingly, as dude has once again entered the pop lexicon over the last three decades it has taken the form of mockery, irony, and finally, nearly complete acceptance. In its current usage, dude has crossed the gender barrier (and is now used as a term of affection among certain couples who have adopted it as an acknowledgement of equality), and indeed it is easier to describe whom the term does not apply to, than who it does.

The Oxford Dictionary's Definition

Crossing the Gender Barrier

Though dude had been applied to women as early as the mid-70's, its use came to a tipping point somewhere in the mid-80's. Attempts to establish dudette as the feminine form failed (the original term for a fine-looking woman among Hawaiian surfers, wahine, never established itself either) and it is now a fact that dude, at least in the prescriptive sense, can refer to both men and women. Perhaps the first mainstream display of this usage appeared in the movie Less Than Zero, in which there is a scene where a young woman defiantly tells her mother, "No way, dude!". Indeed, even American Heritage Dictionary recognizes this in its dude definition 3.b., that "dudes" are "Persons of either sex". According to Jesse Sheidlower, the North American editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, it is a topic of interest amongst linguists and lexicographers whether dude in the descriptive ("that dude"), rather than the prescriptive ("hey dude") sense can be applied to both men and women (See The Sexual Transmigration of Dude). The latter is generally a non-specific exclamation which can be directed at, but not precisely applied to any certain person. The former is rarely applied to a woman; in fact doing so is sometimes a derogatory expression of a woman's over-masculinity ("she's quite a dude").

A riff on "dude"

Depending on one's tone and body language, dude can mean:

  • Hey! Look over here! or Wow! (DUDE!)
  • Shame on you! (Duuuuude [with head shaking])
  • Are you ok? or Are you there? (Dude?)
  • That is very cool! (doooode!)
  • Oh my God. [expressing shock] (duuuude...)
  • Please? (Duuuuude? [with inflection])
  • Burn! (Duuuuuude! [usually more high-pitched])

This use of the term with body language was probably best demonstrated in the 1998 movie BASEketball where the two lead characters have an entire argument consisting entirely of the word "dude" with various inflections. 

 Coop:  Dude, I'm not gonna cave in! End of story, dude!
Remer:	Duuude??
 Coop:	Dude!
Remer:	Dude!!
 Coop:	Dude.
Remer:	Dude!
 Coop:	DUDE!
Remer:	Duude!! 
        [Coop opens his mouth but says nothing. Remer continues firmly] 
Remer:  Dude.
 Coop:	[speechless, mouths around for something to say] 
        I guess you got a point there. All right all right, look. 
        Maybe I was wrong. From now on... we're full partners.
Remer:	Really?

Dude in pop culture

The term dude became prominent in surfer culture in the early '60s, but it wasn't until the mid-'70s that it started creeping into the mainstream. The following is an attempt to list the major pop culture events that have contributed to the spread of this remarkable word, in chronological order.

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dude&oldid=44909552"