Dude#History

File:Berry-wall-king-dudes.jpg, a New York socialite, was dubbed "King of the Dudes". He is pictured (1888) in the New York American newspaper at the time of the "battle of the Dudes".{{cite news|url=http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/king-of-the-dudes/15834/|title=King of the Dudes|last=Bryk|first=William|date=June 22, 2005|work=The New York Sun|access-date=2008-11-11|archive-date=October 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017121237/http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/king-of-the-dudes/15834/|url-status=live}}Jeffers, Harry Paul (2005). Diamond Jim Brady: Prince of the Gilded Age, p.45. John Wiley and Sons. {{ISBN|0-471-39102-6}}]]

The etymology of the term "dude" is obscure.{{cite web | url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dude | title=Definition | publisher=Merriam-Webster | accessdate=5 January 2025}} "Dude" may have derived from the 18th-century word "doodle", as in "Yankee Doodle Dandy".{{Cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2013/11/05/dude_etymology_of_the_word_is_traced_to_doodle_as_in_yankee_doodle_dandy.html|title=Mystery Solved: The Etymology of Dude|last=Okrent|first=Arika|date=2013-11-05|work=Slate|access-date=2017-10-24|language=en-US|issn=1091-2339|archive-date=October 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015060642/http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2013/11/05/dude_etymology_of_the_word_is_traced_to_doodle_as_in_yankee_doodle_dandy.html|url-status=live}}

In the popular press of the 1880s and 1890s, "dude" was a new word for "dandy"—an "extremely well-dressed male", a man who assigned particular importance to his appearance. The café society and Bright Young Things of the late 1800s and early 1900s were populated with dudes. Young men of leisure vied to display their wardrobes. The best known of this type is probably Evander Berry Wall, who was dubbed "King of the Dudes" in 1880s New York and maintained a reputation for sartorial splendor all his life. This meaning of the word, though rarely consciously known today, remains occasionally in some American slang, as in the phrase "all duded up" for getting dressed in fancy clothes.{{citation |contribution=duded up |title=McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs |year=2002 |publisher=The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. |url=http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/duded+up |access-date=10 October 2012 |archive-date=February 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204073038/http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/duded+up |url-status=live }}

File:1883 - origin of dude - Chicago Tribune - 25 Feb 1883.jpgThe word was used to refer to American Easterners, specifically referring to a man with "store-bought clothes".{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xah2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT103|title=Eagle County Characters: Historic Tales of a Colorado Mountain Valley|first=Kathy|last=Heicher|date=June 4, 2013|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781614239505|via=Google Books|access-date=September 23, 2020|archive-date=March 14, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314054120/https://books.google.com/books?id=Xah2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT103#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}} The word was used by cowboys to unfavorably refer to the city dwellers.{{cite web|title=h2g2 - The Word 'Dude' - Edited Entry|url=http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A193853|website=h2g2.com|access-date=2015-07-26|first=Not Panicking|last=Ltd|date=October 29, 1999|archive-date=April 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427215001/http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A193853|url-status=live}}

A variation of this was a "well-dressed man who is unfamiliar with life outside a large city". In The Home and Farm Manual (1883), author Jonathan Periam used the term "dude" several times to denote an ill-bred and ignorant but ostentatious man from the city.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}}

The implication of an individual who is unfamiliar with the demands of life outside of urban settings gave rise to the definition of dude as a "city slicker", or "an Easterner in the [American] West".{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dude |title=Dude, Def. 2 – The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary |access-date=8 May 2007 |publisher=Merriam-Webster |archive-date=March 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308181328/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dude |url-status=live }} Thus "dude" was used to describe the wealthy men of the expansion of the United States during the 19th century by ranch-and-homestead-bound settlers of the American Old West. This use is reflected in the dude ranch, a guest ranch catering to urbanites seeking more rural experiences. Dude ranches began to appear in the American West in the early 20th century, for wealthy Easterners who came to experience the "cowboy life". The implicit contrast is with those persons accustomed to a given frontier, agricultural, mining, or other rural setting. This usage of "dude" was still in use in the 1950s in America, as a word for a tourist—of either sex—who attempts to dress like the local culture but fails.{{cite journal|jstor=453362|title=The meanings and etymologies of dude|journal=American Speech|author=Robert Knoll|year=1952|volume=27|issue=1|pages=20–22|doi=10.2307/453362}} An inverse of these uses of "dude" would be the term "redneck," a contemporary American colloquialism referring to poor farmers and uneducated persons, which itself became pejorative, and is also still in use.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, Dictionary of American Slang (1975) p. 424.[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/redneck "Redneck"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521000851/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/redneck? |date=May 21, 2013 }}. Dictionary.com.Barbara Ann Kipfer and Robert L. Chapman, American Slang (2008), p. 404.

As the word gained popularity and reached the coasts of the U.S. and traveled between borders, variations of the slang began to pop up such as the female versions of dudette and dudines; however, they were short lived due to dude also gaining a neutral gender connotation and some linguists see the female versions as more artificial slang. The slang eventually had gradual decline in usage until the early to mid 20th century when other subcultures of the U.S. began using it more frequently while again deriving it from the type of dress and eventually using it as a descriptor for common male and sometimes female companions. Eventually, lower class schools with a greater mix of subcultures allowed the word to spread to almost all cultures and eventually up the class ladders to become common use in the U.S. By the late 20th to early 21st century, dude had gained the ability to be used in the form of expression, whether that be disappointment, excitement, or loving and it also widened to be able to refer to any general person no matter race, sex, or culture.{{Cite journal|last=Hill|first=Richard A.|date=1994|title=You've Come a Long Way, Dude: A History|jstor=455525|journal=American Speech|volume=69|issue=3|pages=321–327|doi=10.2307/455525}}

The term was also used as a "job description", such as "bush hook dude" as a position on a railroad in the 1880s. For an example, see the Stampede Tunnel.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}}

In the early 1960s, dude became prominent in surfer culture as a synonym of guy or fella. The female equivalent was "dudette" or "dudess", but these have both fallen into disuse and "dude" is now also used as a unisex term. This more general meaning of "dude" started creeping into the mainstream in the mid-1970s. "Dude", particularly in surfer and "bro" culture,{{citation needed|date=December 2015}} is{{when|date=December 2015}} generally used informally to address someone ("Dude, I'm glad you finally called") or refer to another person ("I've seen that dude around here before").{{cite web|title=Examples of Slang |first=Cassie |last=Howell |url=http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/1914-/language/slang.htm |access-date=10 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204062100/http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/1914-/language/slang.htm |archive-date=February 4, 2013}}

One of the first known references to the word in American film was in the 1969 movie Easy Rider where Wyatt (portrayed by Peter Fonda) explains to his cellmate lawyer (portrayed by Jack Nicholson) the definition of "dude": "Dude means nice guy; Dude means regular sort of person." Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad claims that drummer Don Brewer popularized the word dude with the song "We're an American Band" which was released in 1973.{{YouTube|id=asgfNYp2kqY|title=Guitarist gave Drummer SOLE CREDIT On 70s Hit He Helped CREATE-Cost Him Millions}} The usage of the word to mean a "cool person" was further popularized in American films of the 1980s and 1990s such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Wayne's World, and Clerks.{{cite news|last1=Peters|first1=Mark|title=The History of the "Dude"|url=https://www.good.is/articles/the-history-of-the-dude|access-date=27 January 2017|publisher=GOOD Worldwide, Inc.|date=25 April 2010|archive-date=February 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202063257/https://www.good.is/articles/the-history-of-the-dude|url-status=live}}

The 1998 film The Big Lebowski featured Jeff Bridges as "The Dude", described as a "lazy deadbeat". The character was largely inspired by activist and producer Jeff Dowd who has been called "Dude" since childhood.{{cite news|last1=Raz|first1=Guy|title=The Dude: A Little Lebowski, Alive in All of Us|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90725993|access-date=27 January 2017|work=All Things Considered|publisher=National Public Radio|date=25 May 2008|archive-date=September 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905120345/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90725993|url-status=live}} The film's central character inspired the creation of Dudeism, a neoreligion.{{cite news|last1=Ehrlich|first1=Richard|title=The man who founded a religion based on 'The Big Lebowski'|url=http://travel.cnn.com/bangkok/life/doctrine-chiang-mais-church-latter-day-dude-explained-206793/|access-date=27 January 2017|work=CNN Travel|publisher=CNN|date=20 March 2013|archive-date=March 24, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130324030503/http://travel.cnn.com/bangkok/life/doctrine-chiang-mais-church-latter-day-dude-explained-206793/|url-status=live}}

In 2008, Bud Light aired an advertising campaign in which the dialogue consists entirely of different inflections of "Dude!" and does not mention the product by name. It was a followup to their near-identical and more widely noted "Whassup?" campaign.{{cite web |last=Swansburg |first=John |title=Dude! How great are those new Bud Light ads? |work=Slate |date=28 January 2008 |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2182846/pagenum/all/#page_start |access-date=10 March 2008 |archive-date=March 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080313182320/http://www.slate.com/id/2182846/pagenum/all/#page_start |url-status=live }}

On July 23, 2019, Boris Johnson used the word "dude" as an acronym for his Conservative Party leadership campaign platform. In his leadership speech he explained it: Deliver Brexit – Unite the country – Defeat Jeremy Corbyn – Energize the country.{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-49084446/boris-johnson-dude-we-are-going-to-energise-the-country |title=Dude! We are going to energise the country |work=BBC News |access-date=2019-12-12 |archive-date=July 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190723230039/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-49084446/boris-johnson-dude-we-are-going-to-energise-the-country |url-status=live }}

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{{Wiktionary}}

• [http://www.pitt.edu/~kiesling/dude/dude.html Dude] – By Kiesling, Scott F., Published in American Speech, Vol. 79, No. 3, Fall 2004, pp. 281–305
• [http://observer.com/2003/07/dude-wheres-my-dude-dudelicious-dissection-from-sontag-to-spicoli/ Dude, Where's My Dude?] – Dudelicious Dissection, From Sontag to Spicoli, The New York Observer
• [http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20010621 Words@random:] "dude"
• [http://dudespaper.com/dude-university/material-for-the-study-of-dude-part-1 Material for the Study of Dude] – The etymological origin of the word "dude" by Barry Popik, David Shulman, and Gerald Cohen. Originally published in Comments on Etymology, October 1993, Vol. 23, No. 1
• {{cite journal|title=You've Come a Long Way, Dude: A History|last=Hill|first=Richard A.|journal=American Speech|publisher=Duke University Press|volume=69|issue=3|date=Autumn 1994|pages=321–327|doi=10.2307/455525|jstor=455525}}
• {{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/dude-transcends/309528/|title=A Brief History of Dude|last=Gould|first=J. J.|work=The Atlantic|date=November 2013|access-date=May 21, 2017}}

Category:19th-century fashion

Category:20th-century fashion

Category:Slang terms for men

Category:Stereotypes of urban people

Category:American slang