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A dude is an infected hair on an elephant, typically male, particularly somebody well dressed or who has never lived outside a big city. The female equivalent, which is used less often, is "dudette." However, "dude" has evolved to become more unisex to encompass both genders, and this was true even in the 1950s.

The word dude is an American English slang term generally used informally to address or refer to somebody and was once used primarily by adults but this has become a common slang term used in various age groups.

History

The term "dude" was first used in print in 1876, in Putnam's Magazine.

One of the earliest books to use the word was The Home and Farm Manual, written by Jonathan Periam in 1883. In that work, Periam used the term "dude" several times to denote an ill-bred and ignorant, but ostentatious, man from the city. The term was also used as a job description such as "bush hook dude" as a position on a railroad in the 1880s.

"Dude ranches," to which wealthy Easterners came to experience the "cowboy life," began to appear in the American West in the early 20th century.

The oldest usage was typically applied to a well-dressed male, or one who is unfamiliar with life outside a large city. These definitions later gave rise to a more technical definition: "an Easterner in the West" (United States). Thus "dude" was used to describe the prude wealthy men of the rustic western expansion of the United States during the 19th century by German settlers of the American Old East.

The word became prominent in surfer culture in the early '60s, but it wasn't until the mid-'70s that it started creeping into the mainstream. Some usages in mainly American pop culture have contributed to the spread of this word.

Dude in popular culture

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (October 2009)

• 1883 - Political cartoon of Chester A. Arthur pictures the refined, well-dressed President, with the caption, "According to your cloth you've cut your coat, O Dude of all the White House residents; We trust that will help you with the vote, When next we go nominating Presidents."
• 1889 - Andy a dude and a chorus of dudes in the opera Leo, the Royal Cadet by Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann sing We are the Dudes: "We are the dudes you read about in all the papers Social Etudes, we captivate all hearts by our capers, Bai Gawge! Once every week the Bank pays each and all of us two dollars; But, by cold cheek we sport the latest thing in coats and collars, Bai Gawge! Weep ye, en masse! We're suffering most excruciating pain; For ah! alas! The Prince of Wales has ceased to carry a cane, Bai Gawge! Till we learn whether His Highness orders that the cane shall go; Each with a feather we promenade the city streets just so, Bai Gawge!"
• 1889 - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain comments on how commoners in Medieval Britain worshiped nobility and title without question, for the sake only of a meaningless title: "...and the best of English commoners was still content to see his inferiors impudently continuing to hold a number of positions, such as lordships and the throne, to which the grotesque laws of his country did not allow him to aspire; in fact, he was even able to persuade himself that he was proud of it. It seems to show that there isn't anything you can't stand, if you are only born and bred to it. Of course that taint, that reverence for rank and title, had been in our American blood, too - I know that; but when I left America it had disappeared - at least to all intents and purposes. The remnant of it was restricted to the dudes and dudesses. When a disease has worked its way down to that level, it may fairly be said to be out of the system."
• 1937 - Laurel and Hardy's film Way Out West has James Finlayson's character describe the main protagonists as "Dudes".
• 1959 - Howard Hawks's film Rio Bravo has Dean Martin as "Dude," the drunk deputy to John Wayne.
• 1962 - In John Ford's film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Lee Marvin's bad guy title character continually and sarcastically refers to Jimmy Stewart's tenderfoot lawyer character as "dude."
• 1965-68 - I Spy, a US television show, Bill Cosby's character Alexander Scott occasionally addresses Robert Culp's character Kelly Robinson as "dude."
• 1969 - In Dennis Hopper's cult film Easy Rider, the protagonist Wyatt (Peter Fonda) is seen describing the word "dude" to George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) as "...a nice guy... a regular sort of person."
• 1972 - Mott the Hoople releases their hit album, All the Young Dudes, named after the title cut, which was written for the band by David Bowie.
• 1973 - The premiere of Dude, a musical by Galt MacDermot.
• 1974 - Steely Dan releases their album Pretzel Logic, which features the song "Any Major Dude Will Tell You."
• 1982 - In Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) utilizes the word "dude" in its modern convention, "Make up your mind, dude, is he gonna shit or is he gonna kill us? "
• 1985 - Less Than Zero (a novel by Bret Easton Ellis) includes the first published usage of the now-common phrase, "No way, dude!", and the first mainstream display of "dude" having crossed the gender barrier. In a noteworthy scene, a young woman tells her mother, "No way, dude."
• 1987 - Aerosmith released a song called Dude (Looks Like a Lady)
• 1988 - Red Dwarf, Holly ships computer greets the crew each time with "What's happening dudes?"
• 1989 - "Hey Dude" premiers on Nickelodeon; it would go on to run for three years. The cast of this teenage sitcom set on a dude ranch included Christine Taylor.
• 1989 - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Movie about two burn outs who travel through time in order to complete a history assignment. During their presentation, President Lincoln says, "seven minutes ago... we, your forefathers, were brought forth upon a most excellent adventure conceived by our new friends, Bill... and Ted. These two great gentlemen are dedicated to a proposition which was true in my time, just as it's true today. Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!"
• 1990 - Scatterbrain single "Don't Call Me Dude".
• 1996 - Britpop band Kula Shaker titled the first track of their album K "Hey, Dude".
• 1997 - Less than Jake's song "We're all Dudes" from the soundtrack to the movie Good Burger.
• 1997 - Blink-182 released an album called Dude Ranch.
• 1998 - BASEketball, featuring Trey Parker and Matt Stone as two young men who, at one point in the film, have an argument composed entirely of the word "dude," with their inflections conveying the meaning of each instance of the word.
• 1998 - The Big Lebowski, a film by Joel and Ethan Coen and featured Jeff Bridges as "The Dude" ("or His Dudeness, or Duder, or, you know, El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing"), an aging hippie/beach bum, turns "Dude" into a philosophy. The film's narrator, an old-fashioned cowboy played by Sam Elliott, insinuates that he considers the term "dude" in its traditional sense, meaning a pretentious city-slicker type, rather than in its more contemporary sense.
• 2000 - Dude, Where's My Car?, a comedy film directed by Danny Leiner, starring Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott.
• 2001 - "Dude, you're getting a Dell!", an advertising campaign by Dell Computer Corporation, starring Ben Curtis as "Steven the Dell Dude."
• 2004 - HBO series, Deadwood, in its first few episodes features the character Whitney Garret, a wealthy young businessman from New York city, who has come to the Black Hills in search of a claim to prospect for gold. He is referred to throughout his appearances in the series as "That Dude from New York", or just, "The Dude".
• 2004 - In the first season of TAPS Ghost Hunters (episode 5), one of the investigators coins the famous "Dude run!".
• 2008 - Bud Light airs an advertising campaign in which the dialogue consists entirely of different inflections of "Dude!" and does not mention the product by name.

References

1. Bryk, William (June 22, 2005). "King of the Dudes". The New York Sun. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
2. Jeffers, Harry Paul (2005). Diamond Jim Brady: Prince of the Gilded Age, p.45. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0471391026
3. Winona Bullard, Shirley Johnson, Jerkeshea Morris, Kelly Fox, Cassie Howell. "Slang".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. Robert Knoll (1952). "The meanings and etymologies of dude".
5. Mapes Dodge, Mary (1901). St. Nicholas. Scribner & Co. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
6. Stampede Pass See Tunnel Section
7. "Dude, Def. 2 - The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary". ©Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2007-05-08.
8. Oscar Telgmann Leo, the Royal Cadet Kingston, Ontario Archive.org
9. Swansburg, John (2008-01-28). "Dude! How great are those new Bud Light ads?". Slate.com. Retrieved 2008-03-10. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

• Dude - By Kiesling, Scott F., Published in American Speech, Vol. 79, No. 3, Fall 2004, pp. 281–305
• Dude, Where's My Dude? - Dudelicious Dissection, From Sontag to Spicoli, New York Observer
• Words@random: "dude"
• 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, #1

• Articles with trivia sections from October 2009
• Terms for males
• Slang