Three Things: The Dude Edition
I really enjoy thumbing through the dictionary. With my actual thumb on actual pages. While I do also use online dictionaries and thesauri fairly regularly, I would really miss the accidental discoveries that occur with physical reference books if I only looked things up online. Take yesterday, for example. I’m looking up the word “clue” in my copy of The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology (ed. Robert K Barnhart, 1995), and end up reading about the history of the word “dude” instead.
dude n. 1883, a man who is very fastidious in dress, speech, and manner. The word came into vogue in New York and is of unknown origin. Later it was also applied to a city slicker, especially an Easterner vacationing in the West. The slang sense of any male, is first recorded about 1970. —dude ranch (1921)
Now I don’t know about you, but all of this information has suddenly made that well-worn moniker much more interesting for me. Everyone addressed as “dude” in my presence now wears phantom chaps, or better yet, top hats and monocles.
This week? Write something about a dude. For a dude. By a dude. Any dude. Behold, three dudes to get you started:
Photograph of Oscar Wilde by Napoleon Sarony, 1882.
Rydell Family on vacation at a Montana Dude Ranch, 1958. Via Covered Wagon Ranch.
Jeff Bridges as “The Dude, His Dudeness… Duder… or El Duderino, if, you know, you’re not into the whole brevity thing.” in The Big Lebowski. Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen. Gramercy Pictures, 1998.
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I’ve been trying to think of something literary to comment with, but my mind goes blank every time I see the photo of His Dudeness. Then all I can think is, “duuude…”.
I will say, though, I’d love a “3 Things” post about the word “awesome”. That word has gone through the same kind of transformation in contemporary usage. It used to be used to describe something of biblical proportions, and now is used to mean “good”.