Some things are self-explanatory, but this one..can't work out where it came from?
Nick

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fierofetish.PFF'S self-confessed Snowbird!!

Responsibilty: the solution for our World's Dilemmas..

I don't know, but I use that word a lot... (that one, and "man")

Wait a second, I have the internet. I know EVERYTHING!!! LOL

Our Living Language Cowboys and the Wild West are indelibly set in the minds of many as typical of Americaan association borne out by several common Modern English words that originated in the speech of the 19th-century western United States. One is dude, now perhaps most familiar as a slang term with a wide range of uses (including use as an all-purpose interjection for expressing approval: “Dude!”). Originally it was applied to fancy-dressed city folk who went out west on vacation. In this usage it first appears in the 1870s. The origin of the word is not known, but a number of other cowboy terms were borrowed by early settlers from American Spanish. These include buckaroo, corral, lasso, mustang, ranch, rodeo, and stampede. Buckaroo, interestingly, is an example of a word borrowed twice: it is an Americanized form of Spanish vaquero, which also made it into English as vaquero, a cowboy.

[This message has been edited by FieroRumor (edited 07-22-2005).]

Thanks Chris!! So nobody really knows...I did Google it, and got that answer too...but thought maybe one of you guys would know more !! Oh, the faith I have in PFF!!!
Just had a thought!! I know they called fancy-dressed slickers Dude...wonder if it comes from them wearing fancy "Duds"...hmmmm back to Google!!
Ok...think I have it!! It comes from the early English word "dudde", which was a fancy cloak..Became "duds" as a description for any fine clothing..and people who wore such attire were named "Dudes"...simple, really!! End of thread...I love to find out where today's words came from..
Nick

[This message has been edited by fierofetish (edited 07-22-2005).]

"Cause I'm the Dude man, so that's what you call me. That or Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing"

What is the origin and history of the word dude?
The original meaning of this American-born word is still its first definition today, 'a man excessively concerned with his clothes, grooming and manners'. I thought that dude was an old word, but I thought wrong. I guess it's because the word sounds vaguely like duke, and all those titles of royalty are fairly ancient. But dude first appeared in print in 1878. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang cites an 1877 reference in a letter--not published, however, until 1988--from the painter and sculptor Frederick Remington: "Don't send me any more [drawings of] women or any more dudes." By 1883, dude was in wider circulation. In June of that year, its popularity was noted by Massachusetts’ North Adams Transcript: "The new coined word 'dude'...has travelled over the country with a great deal of rapidity since but two months ago it grew into general use in New York." By 1885, it had established a strong enough foothold to appear in Ulysses S. Grant's Personal Memoirs: "Before the car I was in had started, a dapper little fellow--he would be called a dude at this day--stepped in."

Fairly soon, a dude came to mean an Easterner or a city slicker, and especially someone who vacations on a ranch--thus dude ranch.

Dude also spawned quite a few odd derivatives, such as dudedom, dudeness, dudery, dudism, dudish, dudess and dudine--the last two meaning 'female dudes'. None of these is in general use today. I thought dudess might have had a revival as part of the surfer culture; however, Malia Alani of Surfer Magazine said no. She e-mailed me that "I don't think there is a feminine word for dude. A traditional Hawaiian word used commonly for women surfers is wahine." (Note: following the appearance of the column, several readers have informed me that dudette is the feminine form of dude. A quick search of Nexis confirms the word is, in fact, current. Thanks, everyone.)

The meaning of the word as 'a male person' has been in wide use since the 1960's. This is from a 1968 book called College Drug Scene: "And I got into symbolic logic and semantics with a cat who had studied with Korzybski and electronics from a dude who had an Associate of Arts degree in anthropology from 1941." The use of dude in direct address to a male began much earlier. This is from a 1945 book called Silversides: "Hey, dude, there's a ship out here!"

The origin of dude is uncertain. There are a few speculations, the most interesting of which, to my mind, is from A Dictionary of Slang by Eric Partridge. He says that it may have come from the word dud--which, at the time, meant 'a delicate weakling'--"influenced by attitude."

Wow!! Very "in depth!!" Thanks Berlin!!
Nick

Just remember that "dude" is really only "edud" spelled backwards.

Where are those ducks?

and why are all the angels pointing at Boondawg?

[This message has been edited by FieroRumor (edited 07-22-2005).]

quote Originally posted by FieroRumor: and why are all the angels pointing at Boondawg?

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 07-22-2005).]

*looks at the purdy picture*

small schoolchildren (with bad teeth): "We don't need no baked alaskan....."

[This message has been edited by FieroRumor (edited 07-22-2005).]

Baked

Alaskan

I am an English teacher. The Oxford English Dictionary is the authorative source on word origins. Before an entry is made to this reference work, it is extensively researched. They try to establish the very first (written) use of every word. Here is the entry for "dude". The notes show you where they found the word used. As you can see, the word was used back to 1883, but the meaning of the word as you are using it today seems to have shown up around 1950.

Probably more than you really wanted to know, but I get so much here and give so little, I thought I'd throw this out.

southgal

1. A name given in ridicule to a man affecting an exaggerated fastidiousness in dress, speech, and deportment, and very particular about what is ćsthetically ‘good form’; hence, extended to an exquisite, a dandy, ‘a swell’.

1883 Graphic 31 Mar. 319/1 The ‘Dude’ sounds like the name of a bird. It is, on the contrary, American slang for a new kind of American young man..The one object for which the dude exists is to tone down the eccentricities of fashion..The silent, subfusc, subdued ‘dude’ hands down the traditions of good form. 1883 North Adams (Mass.) Transcript 24 June, The new coined word ‘dude’..has travelled over the country with a great deal of rapidity since but two months ago it grew into general use in New York. 1883 American VII. 151 The social ‘dude’ who affects English dress and the English drawl. 1883 Harper's Mag. LXVII. 632 The elderly club dude. 1884 in Bryce Amer. Commw. (1888) II. App. 642 Dudes and roughs, civil service reformers and office-holding bosses..join in midnight conferences. 1886 A. LANG in Longm. Mag. Mar. 553 Our novels establish a false ideal in the American imagination, and the result is that mysterious being ‘The Dude’.

2. A non-westerner or city-dweller who tours or stays in the west of the U.S., esp. one who spends his holidays on a ranch; a tenderfoot; dude ranch, a ranch which provides entertainment for paying guests and tourists; so dude rancher, one who owns a dude ranch. Chiefly U.S.

1883 Prince Albert Times (Saskatchewan) 4 July 5/1 The dude is one of those creatures which are perfectly harmless and are a necessary evil to civilization. 1921 Scribner's Mag. Mar. 343/1 ‘Is this Scott Lawson's dude ranch?’ soberly inquired the rider of the pinto. 1924 H. CROY R.F.D. No. 3 148 I'm going to put up the finest cattle barn in the state{em}that is, belonging to a real dirt farmer, not to one of them city dudes. 1940 E. FERGUSSON Our Southwest vi. 108 Every dude rancher saw his profits disappear underground in pumps, pipes, and septic tanks. 1949 ‘J. TEY’ Brat Farrar xiii. 116 There was paint galore at the dude ranch, but there was also a tradition of toughness. 1967 Boston Sunday Herald 14 May 11. 13/1 It features in abundance the attractions that people who want to live in high, wide and handsome fashion will appreciate in its various seasons{em}riding, fishing, hunting, golfing, skiing, dude ranches and plush hotels.

Hence {sm}dudedom, {sm}dudeness, {sm}dudery, {sm}dudism (nonce-wds.), the state, style, character or manners of a dude; {sm}dudess, dudine (-{sm}i{lm}n), a female dude; {sm}dudish a., characteristic of a dude; foppish.

1883 Philad. Times No. 2892. 2 Not..to encourage the development of the dude or the dudine in his dominion. 1885 Weekly New Mexican Rev. 28 May 2/5 The dudes and dudesses of Vegas are rehearsing for the opera entitled ‘The Doctor of Alcantara’. 1885 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 15 June 2/3 The intense dudeness of Lord Beaconsfield in his early days is illustrated by a letter written in 1830. 1889 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Yankee viii. 80 Reverence for rank and title..had disappeared{em}at least, to all intents and purposes. The remnant of it was restricted to the dudes and dudesses. 1889 Bookworm 237 Any dudish Anglo~maniac or Fifth Avenue ‘bud’. 1889 Voice (N.Y.) 2 May, The Pharisaical dudery which presumes to deny her [woman] a place in the world..equal with man. 1890 Teacher (N.Y.) Sept. 101 Are we traveling the way of the Greeks?.. Is dudism becoming more contagious among us than philanthropy? 1891 A. WELCKER Woolly West 69 Joe then went east, and..married a young dudine out there. 1894 DICKSON Life Edison 230 A dudish applicant, with an overweening sense of his own self-importance. 1894 Forum (U.S.) May 345 [It] would relegate its champion to the realms of dudedom.

ADDITIONS SERIES 1993

dude, n.

Add: [2.] b. More generally, any man who catches the attention in some way; a fellow or chap, a guy. Hence also approvingly, esp. (through Black English) applied to a member of one's own circle or group. Cf. CAT n.1 2 d. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).

1918 L. E. RUGGLES Navy Explained 139 In a gang of snipes there is generally one dude who is known as the ‘king snipe’. 1934 J. T. FARRELL Young Manhood xxiii. 382 He turned to see a dude, with baboon lips, twisting and bending forwards as he laughed. 1950 H. E. GOLDIN Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 156/1, I got a chill on (doubt the courage of) this dude we're working with. He might phony up on a drop. 1967 Trans-Action Apr. 6/1 My set of Negro street types contained a revolving and sometimes disappearing (when the ‘heat’, or police pressure, was on) population of about 45 members ranging in age from 18 to 25. These were the local ‘dudes’, their term meaning not the fancy city slickers but simply ‘the boys’, ‘fellas’, the ‘cool people’. 1969 H. R. BROWN in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 354 There'd be sometimes 40 or 50 dudes standing around. 1978 M. PUZO Fools Die xv. 165 Like I'm one of those flying dudes, who leave their old ladies just to follow their nose. 1984 M. AMIS Money 112, I think my dog go bite one of them white dudes. 1985 G. NAYLOR Linden Hills 29 So Willie gained the respect of Wayne Avenue because he was a ‘deep’ dude. 1990 2000 AD 31 Mar. 2/2, I hope you continue the adventures of this weird dude with the trendy haircut after the current story.

In the mid 70s, a "dude" was merely a guy. Usually used in the same circles who spoke of girls as "chicks". (These circles usually consisted of the herb smokers.) Neither of these terms was derogatory. Just part of the common slang at the time.
"That dude over there - the one talking to the chick in the leather jacket - wants you to call him."

"Duuuuuude!" (used as an exclamation or a greeting) happened much later. I'm guessing it was probably borrowed from the surfers, although I don't know for sure.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: "Duuuuuude!" (used as an exclamation or a greeting) happened much later. I'm guessing it was probably borrowed from the surfers, although I don't know for sure.

In California vernacular, you can have an entire conversation with the word "dude".

You greet your buddy: "dude"

Your buddy got laid: "DUUUUUDE!"

Your buddy is psycho "dude?!?"

[This message has been edited by fierobear (edited 07-22-2005).]

quote Originally posted by pHoOl: "Cause I'm the Dude man, so that's what you call me. That or Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing"

Thanks. I'm so glad THIS wasn't some political conspiracy!
Now all of a sudden I have a strange craving for a white russian.
Dudissiomo!

[This message has been edited by NEPTUNE (edited 07-24-2005).]

quote Originally posted by fierofetish: Wow!! Very "in depth!!" Thanks Berlin!! Nick

Your welcome.

How could such a simple word give lead to so much... What's next, "cool" ?

Cool has had several meanings, nearly all of them older than West Side Story. Its history is more than a little complicated, because several of its senses overlap, and it’s hard to be sure when the rather ill-defined modern slang term came into the language. Also, it’s not always possible to understand how it was being used in some older examples.
One slang sense is “controlled, cautious or discreet”, which was fashionable in the early 1950s in the phrase stay cool. This is first recorded near the end of the nineteenth century, but it’s really a subtle transformation of a standard English form that goes back to Beowulf, in a rather literary metaphor for being unexcited, calm or dispassionate. This turned up in the eighteenth century in the slangy expression cool as a cucumber that is still with us, and in the mainstream language as keeping a cool head—being unemotional or in total command of oneself.
Some researchers suggest that at about the same time a second sense grew out of this standard English meaning, to refer to something that was superlative, exciting or enjoyable (or less strongly, something merely satisfactory or acceptable). The older English meaning was sometimes rather negative, since to be unemotional and in control might imply you were also withdrawn or depressed, lacking warmth, or unenthusiastic (as in someone getting “a cool reception”). Black American English, it is suggested, could have turned this on its head to make something cool its very opposite. If this is true, it would be the first example of a type of slang construction common in modern American Black English—for example bad or wicked. This use of cool only really caught on in the 1930s, but is still common (and is well known, for example, among young people in Britain as well as America, even though a few now insist on spelling it kewl).
This overlaps somewhat with another slang sense, recorded from the beginning of the nineteenth century, that referred to somebody who was assured, audacious or impudent. This turned up in phrases like a cool customer or a cool fish and is also recorded in American English from the 1840s onwards. Yet a fourth sense, of something sophisticated or fashionable, is first recorded from the middle 1940s but is probably rather older. (There are other senses, but let’s not make an already complicated story even more difficult to understand.)
Elements of all these ideas came together in the jazz world in the 1940s, especially in cool jazz—for example Charlie Parker’s Cool Blues of 1947; jazz aficionados used the term to distinguish this style from the hot jazz then in vogue, but also with undertones of at least some of these earlier meanings. It’s with jazz that the slang term was most closely associated and out of which it became more widely known throughout the English-speaking world. In the fifties cool could variously mean restrained, relaxed, laid-back, detached, cerebral, stylish, excellent, or other affirmative things. It became the keyword of the Beat generation and in the 1960s it moved into teen slang—where it has largely stayed.
What is surprising about cool is how long it has been around. Even if you ignore its pre-history, it has stayed in fashion for 50 years or more, a long time for a slang term. And it has remained slang, and not moved into the mainstream. Today it’s just as commonly encountered as it was in the fifties and sixties. Now that’s cool ...