Chrysti The Wordsmith: Dude - 2

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. America's first doods were late 19th century dandified city slickers obsessed with style and appearance. The dude's adventures in the wild west are immortalized in the tales of Mark Twain and Zane Grey. The word is an American ism of uncertain origin but some etymologists suggest the word derives from the dialect old German Duden cop meaning stupid head or fool. During the 1930s dude expanded from the specific moniker meaning dandy to a more generic term synonymous with Guy or fellow popular with a smartly dressed zoot suit crowd and the put Yukos of the Mexican-American community. Dude became an in-group word of address and acceptance. In the 1060 S California surfers enthusiastically embrace the word making every guy a dude. The term spilled over into the counterculture of the 60s and 70s but was significantly reworked in the 1980s and 90s with the advent of the cinema hits Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Bill and Ted's

Excellent Adventure and clerks influenced by these films American youth now lean hard on the word dude no longer just a simple noun. It's evolved into an exclamation a greeting and a token of both agreement and commiseration. And in dude land it behooves one to know who is and is not a dude. Next time on Christie the wordsmith a linguist deconstructs demystifies and deciphers dude 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.