Etymology

UncertainCategory:English terms with unknown etymologies#DUDE,^[1] though likely a clipping of doodle (“fool, simpleton, mindless person”)Category:English clippings#DUDE, perhaps with reference to the fashionable “Yankee Doodle dandy” in the 18th-century lyrics of the song “Yankee Doodle”;^[2] the word is first attested in 1883^[3][4] as a New York City slang term of contempt for a “fastidious man, fop”.^[5] 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”),^[6] 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.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /duːd/, (term of address) [dʉːwd]Category:English 1-syllable words#DUDECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#DUDE

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#DUDE
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: do͞od, IPA^(key): /d(j)uːd/Category:English 1-syllable words#DUDECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#DUDE

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#DUDE
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ɖ(j)uɖ/Category:English 1-syllable words#DUDECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#DUDE
• Rhymes: -uːdCategory:Rhymes:English/uːd#DUDECategory:Rhymes:English/uːd/1 syllable#DUDE

Typically pronounced without a yod /j/ (or an affricate /dj/ → [d͡ʒ] in accents with yod-coalescence) even in accents without yod-dropping, despite the spelling (compare moot vs. mute, toon vs. tune).

Noun

dude (plural dudes)Category:English lemmas#DUDECategory:English nouns#DUDECategory:English countable nouns#DUDECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#DUDECategory:Pages with entries#DUDECategory:Pages with 6 entries#DUDE

1. (chiefly USCategory:American English#DUDE, CanadaCategory:Canadian English#DUDE, colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#DUDE) A man, generally a younger man.

   Synonyms: bloke, chap, cove, guy; see also Thesaurus:man

   So we were at the mall and these two dudes just walk up to us and say "hi".Category:English terms with usage examples#DUDE

   • 1883 March 7, “Animal Intelligence: Facts Tending to Throw Light on the Question: ‘Do Dudes Reason?’”, in Puck, volume XIII, number 313, New York, N.Y.: Keppler & Schwarzmann, →OCLC, page 299:

     A very pretty little dudine of Fifth Avenue is much admired by the dudes in her neighborhood, and it has been observed on several occasions that she appeared to be able to discriminate between them, and not only shows a preference for one dude over another; but is able to recognize the dudes she likes after an interval of separation. It is said, also, that in accepting the attentions of her dude wooers, she shows a peculiar mimicry of the coquettish manners of human girls.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 1896, J. Harington Keene, “Directions for Reading Character from Handwriting”, in The Mystery of Handwriting: A Handbook of Graphology, Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 10 Milk Street, →OCLC, page 19:

     At first sight it may seem odd that the character-reader should in any case declare himself incapable of distinguishing sex in writing. […] The most prevalent reason for this probably lies in the so-called "emancipation of women," who, on aping the masculine pursuits and propensities, really acquire the virile tone of character. In a similar way the "dude" of the day becomes androgynous; and the result in one case is a masculine soul in a woman's shape, and in the other a feminine soul in the degraded form of the so-called "dude".

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 2014, Tim J. Myers, “Choc Rocks”, in Rude Dude's Book of Food: Stories behind Some of the Crazy-Cool Stuff We Eat, [Sanger, Calif.]: Familius, →ISBN:

     At first Europeans didn't realize what chocolate could be—poor guys! [Christopher] Columbus saw cacao beans in 1503, but he didn't have a clue. (No surprise—dude thought he was in India!)

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 2016, Oliver Benjamin, “Additional Notes from the Author”, in The Dude De Ching, new annotated edition, [s.l.]: Abide University Press; Dudeism, LLC:

     Though the term "dude" originated as a term to describe a certain type of male, and then later to refer to men in general, today it is often used to refer to both genders, at least in certain parts of the United States. Dudeism doesn't recognize "dude" as a gender-specific word. We consider both women and men who exhibit dude-like qualities to be "dudes," and assert that the word "dude" can mean many different things depending on the context.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 2021 March 26, AJR, “World's Smallest Violin”, in OK Orchestra‎, US: AJR Productions, BMG Rights Management, →OCLC:

     My grandpa fought in World War II
     He was such a noble dude
     I can’t even finish school
     Missed my mom and left too soon

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

2. (colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#DUDE, used in the vocative) A term of address for someone, typically a man, particularly when cautioning them or offering advice.

   Synonyms: bro, mate, old chap

   Dude, I'd be careful around the principal; he's having a bad day.Category:English terms with usage examples#DUDE

   Watch it, dude; you almost knocked me over.Category:English terms with usage examples#DUDE

   • 2011, C. J. Pascoe, “Becoming Mr. Cougar: Institutionalizing Heterosexuality and Masculinity at River High”, in Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 37:

     The session concluded as Josh, disgusted and surprised, yelled, "Dude, you hit like a girl!" The boys in auto shop drew on images of both femininity—"you hit like a girl"—and bisexuality—"I'll show you a switch hitter." (A bisexual man was often referred to as a "switch hitter" or as someone who "played for both teams.")

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

3. (slangCategory:English slang#DUDE) A tourist.
   • 2006 July–August, J. P. S. Brown, “Hard to Replace: Bill Scott Knows the Value of a Good Horse, a Good Customer, and a Way of Life”, in American Cowboy, Sheridan, Wy.: American Cowboy, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 74 and 76:

     Dudes are at least as entertaining as cows, even when they don't mean to be. A cow can’t voice that honestly curious question that turns a poor cowboy into a laughing fool the way a dude can. Probably nothing in the world can move a cowboy more than a newborn calf's clean, good looks and actions, unless it’s the look of awe on a little dude’s face the first time it sees a cowboy on a horse.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 2011, Richard W. Bevis, “Mi Tsi A-da-zi”, in Dudes and Savages: The Resonance of Yellowstone, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 32:

     The "dudes" are the automobile and bus tourists, mere passers-through: thousands a summer day, millions a season. […] "Dude" expresses perfectly the image that seasonals from the stagecoach driver to the gas-pump jockey have had of tourists: soft, wealthy, uninitiated, ignorant, lowland and (preferably) eastern. […] For the average dude – if such a construct may be admitted – the park is an unusual commodity, financed by his taxes, from which he is therefore entitled to extract as much use and pleasure as he can from the rangers and seasonals who stand in his way.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 2014, Jeremy Agnew, “The Image Persists”, in The Creation of the Cowboy Hero: Fiction, Film and Fact, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 212:

     "Dude" was originally a name for ranch vacationers with no disrespect attached, but it later became derisively associated with clueless easterners who knew nothing of Western ways, as portrayed by Bob Hope in Son of Paleface (1952). Junior's fiancé^{[sic – meaning fiancée]} (Jane Russell) tells him to "go out West." When Junior (Bob Hope) wants to show that he has become a Westerner, he wears a tall outsized white hat like Tom Mix and white wooly chaps, the traditional movie outfit representing an eastern dude. A female dude was known as a "dudess" or "dudine."

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

4. (birdwatchingCategory:en:Birdwatching#DUDE, derogatoryCategory:English derogatory terms#DUDE) A birder who has expensive clothing and equipment, but scant knowledge of birds, their fieldmarks, habits, etc.
   • 1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 1:

     I am forever slagging off some poor harmless dude or pitiful demented twitcher[.]

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

5. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#DUDE) A man who is very concerned about his dress and appearance; a dandy, a fop.

   Synonyms: dandy, fop, masher; see also Thesaurus:dandy

   • 1883 March 7, “Signs of Spring”, in Puck, volume XIII, number 313, New York, N.Y.: Keppler & Schwarzmann, →OCLC, page 21:

     When the dude dons gloves couleur de chien jaune éclairé de la lune—

     [the colour of a yellow dog lighted by the moon]

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 1889, Melville D[e Lancey] Landon, “Eli Perkins’ Dudes”, in Wit and Humor of the Age, Comprising Wit, Humor, Pathos, Ridicule, Satires, Dialects, Puns, Conundrums, Riddles, Charades, Jokes and Magic: By Mark Twain, Josh Billings, Robt. J[ones] Burdette, Alex. Sweet, Eli Perkins: With the Philosophy of Wit and Humor, Chicago, Ill.: G. Cline Pub. House, →OCLC, page 246:

     There are three kinds of dudes in New York. There is the inanimate rich dude who don't want to do a thing on earth but exhibit himself. Then there is the poor dude, who dresses like the rich dude, and who wants to marry a rich girl […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 1926, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, “The Curse of the Golden Cross”, in The Incredulity of Father Brown:

     He is the dandy or dude: the wealthy waster who makes a weak villain for so many American novels. Paul Tarrant seemed to have nothing whatever to do but change his clothes, which he did about six times a day;

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned

Interjection

dudeCategory:English lemmas#DUDECategory:English interjections#DUDECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#DUDECategory:Pages with entries#DUDECategory:Pages with 6 entries#DUDE

1. (slangCategory:English slang#DUDE) A term of address, usually for a man, conveying awe, excitement, surprise, annoyance, etc.

   Synonym: (UK, Australia, New Zealand) mate

   Dude! You finally called!Category:English terms with usage examples#DUDE

   • 2011, Karen Marie Moning, Shadowfever: A Novel (The Fever Series; 5), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN:

     And, feckin' A, you ain't never gonna guess this one—dude! […] Thinking this is a little worse than me watching porn. Dude.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

Verb

dude (third-person singular simple present dudes, present participle dudeing or duding, simple past and past participle duded)Category:English lemmas#DUDECategory:English verbs#DUDECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#DUDECategory:Pages with entries#DUDECategory:Pages with 6 entries#DUDE

1. To address someone as dude.
   • 2011, Karen Marie Moning, Shadowfever (The Fever Series; 5), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN:

     "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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 2013, Maurene Goo, Since You Asked …, New York, N.Y.: Scholastic Press, →ISBN:

     The other two guys with him burst into laughter, dudeing and high-fiving like mad.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 2015, Chris Weitz, “Donna”, in The New Order, New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

2. To take a vacation in a dude ranch.
   • 1949, Fortnight: The Newsmagazine of California, [Los Angeles, Calif.]: O.D. Keep Associates, →OCLC, page 22, column 3:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 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:

     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."

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

3. (USCategory:American English#DUDE) Usually followed by up: to dress up, to wear smart or special clothes.
   • 1980, John G. Mitchell, The Hunt, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →ISBN, page 229:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 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:

     "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."

   • 1998, Victoria Pade, Cowboy's Love (Silhouette Special Edition; 1159), New York, N.Y.: Silhouette Books, →ISBN:

     "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 […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#DUDE

   • 1990, Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future Part III, screenplay:
   • Buford Tannen: Especially not some duded-up egg-sucking piece of gutter trash!

References

Further reading

• Cohen, G. L., Popik, B. A., & Reitan, P. J. (2022). Origin of the Term 'Dude'. Rolla, Missouri: Gerald Leonard Cohen.

Verb

dudeCategory:Asturian non-lemma forms#DUDECategory:Asturian verb forms#DUDECategory:Asturian entries with incorrect language header#DUDECategory:Pages with entries#DUDECategory:Pages with 6 entries#DUDE

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of dudar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of dudar

Verb

dudeCategory:Middle English lemmas#DUDECategory:Middle English verbs#DUDECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#DUDECategory:Pages with entries#DUDECategory:Pages with 6 entries#DUDE

1. did

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈdude]Category:Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation#DUDE

Noun

dude fCategory:Romanian non-lemma forms#DUDECategory:Romanian noun forms#DUDECategory:Romanian entries with incorrect language header#DUDECategory:Pages with entries#DUDECategory:Pages with 6 entries#DUDE

1. inflection of dudă:
   1. indefinite plural
   2. indefinite genitive/dative singular

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)Category:Requests for etymologies in Slovene entries#DUDE

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dùːdɛ/, /dúːdɛ/Category:Slovene 2-syllable words#DUDECategory:Slovene 2-syllable words#DUDECategory:Slovene terms with IPA pronunciation#DUDE

Noun

dūde f plCategory:Slovene lemmas#DUDECategory:Slovene nouns#DUDECategory:Slovene entries with incorrect language header#DUDECategory:Slovene feminine nouns#DUDECategory:Slovene pluralia tantum#DUDECategory:Pages with entries#DUDECategory:Pages with 6 entries#DUDE

1. bagpipes (musical instrument)

Declension

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Category:Requests for tone in Slovene entries

Feminine, a-stem
nominative	dúde
genitive	dúd
	plural
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	dúde
genitive (rodȋlnik)	dúd
dative (dajȃlnik)	dúdam
accusative (tožȋlnik)	dúde
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	dúdah
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	dúdami

Category:Slovene feminine a-stem nouns#DUDE

Further reading

• “dude”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
• “dude”, in Termania, Amebis
• See also the general references Category:sl:Musical instruments#DUDE

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdude/ [ˈd̪u.ð̞e]Category:Spanish 2-syllable words#DUDECategory:Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation#DUDE
• Rhymes: -udeCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/ude#DUDECategory:Rhymes:Spanish/ude/2 syllables#DUDE
• Syllabification: du‧de

Verb

dudeCategory:Spanish non-lemma forms#DUDECategory:Spanish verb forms#DUDECategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#DUDECategory:Pages with entries#DUDECategory:Pages with 6 entries#DUDE

1. inflection of dudar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative