dude
Meanings
- A man, generally a younger man.
- A term of address for someone, typically a man, particularly when cautioning them or offering advice.
- A tourist.
- A birder who has expensive clothing and equipment, but scant knowledge of birds, their fieldmarks, habits, etc.
- A man who is very concerned about his dress and appearance; a dandy, a fop.
- A term of address, usually for a man, conveying awe, excitement, surprise, annoyance, etc.
- To address someone as dude.
- To take a vacation in a dude ranch.
- Usually followed by up: to dress up, to wear smart or special clothes.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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.