dude
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: do͞od
ipa: /duːd/
ipa: /duːd/
ipa: [dʉːwd]
note: Indic
ipa: /ɖ(j)uɖ/
rhymes: -uːd
other: /j/
other: /dj/
other: [d͡ʒ]
Forms: form: dudes
form: dudeing
form: duding
form: duded
form: duded
Etymology: Uncertain, though likely a clipping of doodle (“fool, simpleton, mindless person”), perhaps with reference to the fashionable “Yankee Doodle dandy” in the 18th-century lyrics of the song “Yankee Doodle”; the word is first attested in 1883 as a New York City slang term of contempt for a “fastidious man, fop”. If so, then related to German Low German Dudeldop, Dudendop (“fool, dunce”), Saterland Frisian Duddigegen (“idiot”).
It has also been suggested that the word is derived from dudes (“old rags”; compare duds) and dudesman (“scarecrow”), or possibly related to dawdle; It has also been suggested the word derives from the Irish dúid.
The common claim that the term derives from (or is) a word for a camel's foreskin (or some other vulgar thing, like a hair on a cow, horse, donkey, or elephant's bottom) is false.
Senses: examples: text: "Where you been, Mac? I missed you! Dude—I mean, man," she corrects hastily, with a gamine grin, before I can make good on a threat I made in what feels like another lifetime that I would call her by her full name if she ever "duded" me again. […] Oh, yes, she's upset. She just unapologetically "duded" me.
ref: 2011, Karen Marie Moning, Shadowfever (The Fever Series; 5), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN:
text: The other two guys with him burst into laughter, dude'''ing and high-fiving like mad.
ref: 2013, Maurene Goo, Since You Asked …, New York, N.Y.: Scholastic Press, →ISBN:
text: After the high fives comes a lot of dude-ing and hugging and I'm-so-happy-to-see-you-ing, and then the sugarcoating of seeing one another again sort of dissolves and we find ourselves in this dinky screening room thing under the eyes of our captors.
ref: 2015, Chris Weitz, “Donna”, in The New Order, New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:
glosses: To address someone as dude.
examples: text: The Old Hearst Ranch […] is one of the West's largest and most elaborate dude ranches and includes over 500 acres of woodland trails. There's "dudeing" with all the trimmings, excellent food and rooms at the lodge or individual cabanas.
ref: 1949, Fortnight: The Newsmagazine of California, [Los Angeles, Calif.]: O.D. Keep Associates, →OCLC, page 22, column 3:
text: I am certainly interested in this "dude community" business just because I have tried it in the slightest kind of way. In camping it's "the fewer the better," but in "dudeing" it may be "the more the merrier."
ref: 2001, Janice Sanford Beck, “Tepee Life in the Northern Hills (1924)”, in No Ordinary Woman: The Story of Mary Schäffer Warren, Surrey, B.C.: Rocky Mountain Books, →ISBN, page 182:
glosses: To take a vacation in a dude ranch.
examples: text: It seemed that the fellas couldn't get enough girlin' and racing fast cars and grooving to rock and dudeing around in city-slick suits from St. Louis.
ref: 1980, John G. Mitchell, The Hunt, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →ISBN, page 229:
text: "Speaking of being duded out …" He shrugged, then handed her the bag. "Here. This is for you." / She reached inside and gasped as she pulled out a white suede western style hat. A glittering gold braid encircled the brim. / "Oh, Zack! It's beautiful. Thank you."
ref: 1994, Sydell I. Voeller, chapter 8, in Her Sister's Keeper, New York, N.Y.: Avalon Press, ISBN 978-0-8034-9063-5; republished Amherst Junction, Wis.: Hard Shell Word Factory, February 2002, ISBN 978-0-7599-0223-7, page 81
text: "Ol' Clint's all duded up, too," Cully announced as Savannah opened the door to the only Culhane she had eyes for. "All duded up" meant Clint had on a pair of gray slacks that no Savile Row tailor could have made fit any better; a crisp, blindingly white Western dress shirt with pearl snaps down the front; and a black string tie held together with a small silver CC […]
ref: 1998, Victoria Pade, Cowboy's Love (Silhouette Special Edition; 1159), New York, N.Y.: Silhouette Books, →ISBN:
text: 1990, Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future Part III, screenplay:
text: Buford Tannen: Especially not some duded-up egg-sucking piece of gutter trash!
glosses: Usually followed by up: to dress up, to wear smart or special clothes.