Chrysti The Wordsmith: Dude - 3

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith in the Fall 2004 edition of The Journal American speech University of Pittsburgh linguist Scott Kiesling published a scholarly paper decoding and deciphering the word dude. A staple in the lexicon of American teenagers and college students since the early 1980s Kiesling notes that quote dude is an address term that is used mostly by young man to address other young man. However its use has expanded so it's now used as a general address term for a mixed gender group and by and to women Kiesling believes that due derives its social significance from what he calls cool solidarity. For example young men who know how to use the word appropriately can demonstrate their feelings of solidarity with other males without hinting at intimacy and within those parameters young men and increasingly young women can deploy dude in a number of creative ways. For example it's a greeting. What's up dude. It's a token of commiseration. Do you. I'm so sorry. And a

generic exclamation of surprise disagreement or discussed. Dude. And of course inside do dumb Furthermore there are rules about who is not a dude. A parent a teacher a boss a significant other etc. and Kiessling notes the accepted pronunciation of the word is due which he spells d e dash o o d. You can reach Scott Kiesling as dude paper from my website wordsmith radio dot org. Good day verbal force Christie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises. A high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry sued web dotcom.