dude

dude
n
a man. The 19th-century American sense of dude as a 'fop', an overdressed city dweller, etc. (familiar from westerns and 'dude ranches') gave rise to a 20th-century black usage meaning first pimp or 'fancy man', then simply a (male) per-son. The term came into vogue in the 1970s and spread to Britain, where in 1973 it was briefly adopted by the gay and teenage milieus (appearing for instance in the title of the David Bowie song 'All the Young Dudes'). In the late 1980s the word had again surfaced in teenage parlance, inspired by its contin-uing presence in black American street speech. Dude was originally a German rustic term for a fool.
► 'There were more commercials...but no more crime... nothing about two dudes in Halloween masks breaking into a Bloom-field Village home.' (The Switch, Elmore Leonard, 1978)

Contemporary slang . 2014.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Dude — Dude, Where s My Car? Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Dude, Where s My Car? Título Hey, ¿dónde está mi auto? (Hispanoamérica) Colega, ¿dónde está mi coche? (España) Ficha técnica Dirección Danny Leiner Producción Gil Netter Brod …   Wikipedia Español

  • dude — 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… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Dude — Dude, n. A kind of dandy; especially, one characterized by an ultrafashionable style of dress and other affectations. [Recent] [1913 Webster] The social dude who affects English dress and English drawl. The American. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • dude — [dju:d US du:d] n AmE [Date: 1800 1900; Origin: Perhaps from German dude stupid person ] 1.) informal a man ▪ a real cool dude 2.) old fashioned an American man from a city, who is living in or visiting a farm or ↑ranch …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • dude — [n1] friend buddy, chap, fellow, guy; concept 423 dude [n2] dapper man Beau Brummel*, coxcomb, dandy, fancy Dan*, fashion plate, fine gentleman, fop, slicker*, stud; concept 423 …   New thesaurus

  • dude — ► NOUN N. Amer. informal 1) a man. 2) a dandy. ORIGIN probably from German dialect Dude fool …   English terms dictionary

  • Dude — (spr. djūd oder dūd ), s. Dandy …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • dude — [ dud ] noun count AMERICAN VERY INFORMAL a man a. INFORMAL a man from a city in the eastern U.S. or Canada who goes on vacation to a western RANCH (=a place where you ride horses) b. used for talking in a friendly or threatening way to a man you …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • dude — dȕde ž mn <G mn dȗdā> DEFINICIJA reg. glazb. etnol. narodni puhaći instrument s mijehom, sličan gajdama od kojih se razlikuje po trocijevnoj prebiraljki ONOMASTIKA pr. (prema zanimanju): Dùdāš (360, Vukovar, I Slavonija) ETIMOLOGIJA njem.… …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • dude — *fop, dandy, beau, coxcomb, exquisite, buck …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • dude — ☆ dude [do͞od, dyo͞od ] n. [< ?] 1. a man too much concerned with his clothes and appearance; dandy; fop 2. [West Slang] a city fellow or tourist, esp. an Easterner who is vacationing on a ranch 3. Slang any man or boy vt. duded, duding Slang… …   English World dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”