Dude


[dood, dyood] /dud, dyud/

noun
1.
a man excessively concerned with his clothes, grooming, and manners.
2.
Slang.

3.
a person reared in a large city.
4.
Western U.S. an urban Easterner who vacations on a ranch.
interjection
5.
(an expression of shock, approval, sympathy, or other strong feeling):
Dude! That’s one expensive sandwich!
Verb phrases, past and past participle duded up, present participle duding up.
6.
dude up, Informal. to dress in one’s fanciest, best, or most stylish clothes; dress up:
He got all duded up to go to the dance.
/duːd; djuːd/
noun (informal)
1.
(Western US & Canadian) a city dweller, esp one holidaying on a ranch
2.
(mainly US & Canadian) a dandy
3.
(US & Canadian) a person: often used to any male in direct address
n.

1883, “fastidious man,” New York City slang of unknown origin. The vogue word of 1883, originally used in reference to the devotees of the “aesthetic” craze, later applied to city slickers, especially Easterners vacationing in the West (e.g. dude ranch, first recorded 1921).

Now, “tenderfoot” is not to be construed as the Western equivalent of that much evolved and more abused specimen of mankind, familiarly styled “dude.” For even the Montana cowboy recognizes the latter. Not that he has ever seen the true prototype of a class that was erstwhile so numerous among us. But he is convinced that a person caught in the act of wearing a white linen collar, and who looks as though he might have recently shaved or washed his face, must be a dude, true and proper. [“Random Notes and Observations of a Trip through the Great Northwest,” “The Medical Record,” Oct. 20, 1883]

Application to any male is recorded by 1966, U.S., originally in Black English.

noun

[origin unknown; perhaps an invented word]

Read Also:

  • Dudeen

    [doo-deen] /duˈdin/ noun 1. a short clay tobacco pipe. /duːˈdiːn/ noun 1. a clay pipe with a short stem

  • Dudelsack

    [dood-l-sak; German dood-l-zahk] /ˈdud lˌsæk; German ˈdud lˌzɑk/ noun, Music. 1. .

  • Dude-ranch

    noun 1. a ranch operated primarily as a vacation resort. noun 1. (US & Canadian) a ranch used as a holiday resort offering activities such as riding and camping

  • Dudette

    noun the female version of a dude, a cool girl Usage Note slang n. by 1991, from dude in the surfer/teen slang sense + fem. ending -ette. Earlier (in the Old West sense) were dudine (1883), dudess (1885). noun A cool young woman, counterpart of dude: party filled with dudettes

  • Dudevant

    [French dyduh-vahn] /French düdəˈvɑ̃/ noun 1. Madame Amandine Lucile Aurore [French a-mahn-deen ly-seel oh-rawr] /French a mɑ̃ˈdin lüˈsil oʊˈrɔr/ (Show IPA), .


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