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Origin and history of dude

dude(n.)

1883, "fastidious man," New York City slang of unknown origin; recent research suggests it is a shortening of Yankee Doodle, based on the song's notion of "foppish, over-fastidious male" (compare macaroni). 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 (as in dude ranch "ranch which entertains guests and tourists for pay," attested by 1921). "The term has no antecedent record, and is prob. merely one of the spontaneous products of popular slang" [Century Dictionary].

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 African-American vernacular.

DUDE: This does not mean "tenderfoot," as it once did. It now is used to refer positively to somebody. "Charlie's a nice dude." Occasionally it's used as a neutral noun, so you can call someone a "strange dude." [Mike Jahn, "Are You Hip?" Louisville, Ky. Courier-Journal, July 11, 1971]

also from 1883

Entries linking to dude

macaroni(n.)

1590s, from southern Italian dialectal maccaroni (Italian maccheroni), plural of maccarone, name for a kind of pasty food made of flour, cheese, and butter, possibly from maccare "bruise, batter, crush," which is of unknown origin, or from late Greek makaria "food made from barley." Middle English knew the dish as macrouns (late 14c.) where the noodles were layered with butter and cheese.

Originally known as a leading food of Italy (especially Naples and Genoa); into the 20th century it was the only commonly known pasta amongst English speakers, and dishes such as chow mein have been described as "macaroni."

Macaroni was used in English by 1769 to mean "a fop, a dandy" ("typical of elegant young men" would be the sense in "Yankee Doodle") because the food was an exotic dish in England at a time when certain young men who had traveled the Continent were affecting French and Italian fashions and accents (and were much mocked for it).

There is said to have been a Macaroni Club in Britain by 1764, composed of young men who sought to introduce elegancies of dress and bearing from the continent, which was held to be the immediate source of this usage in English. Hence the extended use of macaroni as "a medley; something extravagant to please idle fancy" (by 1884); for which compare macaronic.

Yankee Doodle(n.)

popular tune of the American Revolution, apparently written c. 1755 by British Army surgeon Dr. Richard Schuckburgh while campaigning with Amherst's force in upper New York during the French and Indian War. The original verses mocked the colonial troops (see Yankee) serving alongside the regulars.

The song naturally was popular with British troops in the colonies during the Revolutionary War, but after the colonials began to win skirmishes with them in 1775, they took the tune as a patriotic prize and re-worked the lyrics. The current version of the lyrics seems to have been written in 1776 by Edward Bangs, a Harvard sophomore who also was a Minuteman.

Doodle (n.) appears in Johnson's dictionary as "a trifler; an idler" although it has also been proposed that its use was from, or hinted at, the 18c. slang term for "penis."

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