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+ Mon, July 26

The Dude

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted to know what on earth “dude” means and where it came from.  Words don’t just pop into existence, you know.  Today, from a link from Anil Dash, I have my answer:

For a correct definition of the expression the anxious inquirer has only to turn to the tight-trousered, brief-coated, eye-glassed, fancy-vested, sharp-toes shod, vapid youth who abounds in the Metroplis at present. He is a Dood.

New York Mirror
24 February 1883

The spelling of the term flip-flopped between “dood” and “dude” for a period of time before clearly settling on our present day “dude”.  Or, y’know, “el duderino” if you’re not in the whole brevity thing.

A little more history, it seems the term originated in 1883 in a poem published in the New York World, signed by THE WORLD. You can read much more here.

So, now you know.

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