Etymology of “dude” is traced to "doodle," as in Yankee Doodle Dandy | Hacker News Reader

Etymology of “dude” is traced to "doodle," as in Yankee Doodle Dandy

chronicle.com

83 pointssantigepigon39 comments

It says that "Immense!" was a common dude expression in 1883 -- it doesn't say for what, exactly, but I presume appreciation. I like it, actually! I'm going to start using it and see if I can start a trend.

Immense!

I'm kind of excited about "but aw."

I'd like to imagine it means "I know, right?"

I don’t know the true origin, but it sounds like Scots to me. “Aw” = “all”, and “but aw” would presumably be like “after all”, or “though” in Bristol (or maybe Yorkshire?) dialects.

In summary: dude originally meant "hipster."

Which leads to another problem, that "hipster" has more or less lost all meaning. So perhaps another parallel should be drawn.

Now I'm curious as to the origin of "hipster"...

In 1940s the term "hipster", it seems, stood for a person who was cool, "hip": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_%281940s_subculture%29

This might interest you as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_%28etymology%29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_%281940s_subculture%29

Apparently. Which tells you that nothing new actually is. It also makes you wonder what a Roman hipster would have been like in Caesar's time.

Caesar was considered a 'hipster' in his time (prior to his conquest). He supported plebian donatives and programs, which created a populist support base but engendered distrust and hatred from the Optimates (conservatives). He was also said to have a different style of dress than was the norm.

Then a hipster is a leftist with weird clothes?

a greek.

"I used to make burnt offerings to Athena before it was cool."

You mean Minerva.

Greek culture and language were a prestige thing in classical Rome; they were practiced by the very upper crust of society. There's a reason Julius Caesar's last words were said to have been in Greek.

I don't think hipsters have achieved quite that level of glamour.

"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 Metropolis at present."

I submit that this definition is as true today as it was in 1887.

The contemporary term is “hipster”.

Dude! what doth my tattoo read? Sweet! what doth my tattoo read? DUDE! What doth mine read?

Dude Where's My Horseless Carriage

I never thought that I'd have the chance to submit on topic one of my favorite figures from history. Behold the king of the dudes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evander_Berry_Wall.

ed. This is actually a better link: http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1907811

I always thought "dude" meant: The crusty tuft of hair on a horse's asshole?

Seriously, a science teacher in high school read that definition from a dictionary, and handed out photocopies of it to my class, in the hopes that it would discourage us from using the word, because he got sick of hearing it. It had the opposite effect, obviously.

...but anyway, that's why I laughed when The Stranger in The Big Lebowski implied, with subtlety, the same meaning when he said it was a name "no one would self-apply" where he came from.

I'm sticking with "hairy horse anus."

I don't know about the horse's ass part, but 'dude' is supposedly similar to 'yankee' in the rural western US, in the sense of being a useless, helpless outsider.

Google needs to update their database then: https://www.google.com/search?q=etymology+dude

Dudine is my new favorite word. I think it has a very pleasant sound when used as a greeting.

I'm trying to figure out: Should it be dood-eye-n (like wine), dood-een, or dood-een-eh (like a german might say)?

As an English & French speaker I would say [du̵ːˈdiːn] (dood-EEN).

second one.

I'm curious about how the Hacker News duplicate detector is working today,

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6677539

and how the policy about titles of submissions is being implemented by the moderation team. The article kindly submitted here is a very interesting article.

I always thought dude came from the Irish word "Dúd" or "Dúdaire".

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/nyregion/08irish.html

Etymology of “dude” is traced to "doodle," as in Yankee Doodle Dandy

Which tells us nothing of what the 'doodle' in Yankee Doodle Dandy means. Yankee fine; Dandy, a foppish hipster type; Doodle???

To answer my own question: 'The word doodle first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton. It may derive from the German Dudeltopf or Dudeldop, meaning simpleton or noodle (literally "nightcap").' [1]

Not sure why the author of this article couldn't be bothered to complete the etymology he started.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doodle

Etymonline says it may have been the slang meaning of the time, which was "penis". Figures.

doodle -> dude

google -> guge

(sorry that must have come)

lol

the Doodle abides....and somehow I take comfort in that...

Thanks for the info Dude! (",)

He peed on your fucking rug.

Cue a hundred "Dude" jokes.

Fuck it, Doodle, let's go bowling.

the dood abides.

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