Do you or do you not say "dude" all the time?

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Um, I don't.

― Susan (Susan), Monday, 11 August 2003 09:46 (twenty-two years ago)

i tend to

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 11 August 2003 09:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I say it sometimes, although it's usally in the ironic sense of the word, but not always!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Monday, 11 August 2003 09:51 (twenty-two years ago)

no fucking way.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 11 August 2003 09:52 (twenty-two years ago)

**Um, I don't.**

But you do say "um" a lot, then?

― Marcel Proust, Monday, 11 August 2003 09:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I do yes, it's friendly.

― chris (chris), Monday, 11 August 2003 09:54 (twenty-two years ago)

is it true that it was reintroduced into the street vernacular (from archaic jargon) by P.G.Wodehouse? this is my favourite "fact" of recent weeks

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 11 August 2003 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I severely doubt that, more likely from Jackass and from Bill and Ted

― chris (chris), Monday, 11 August 2003 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe I say "um" a lot, but I don't say "dude". Maybe it's an age thing, maybe it's an non-American thing, I don't know. I totally don't say "totally" either.

― Susan (Susan), Monday, 11 August 2003 09:59 (twenty-two years ago)

constantly

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 11 August 2003 09:59 (twenty-two years ago)

no i meant in the 1920s, comrade cabbage

(in the 80s it wz quincy jones as all kno)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 11 August 2003 10:01 (twenty-two years ago)

i only say dude in the context of "dude, where's my car?" or "the dude abides" and i don't say either of those phrases particularly often.

― angela (angela), Monday, 11 August 2003 10:01 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry dude.

― chris (chris), Monday, 11 August 2003 10:03 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah but my new thing is i call everyone "bro-man" or maybe "daddy-o"

― duane, Monday, 11 August 2003 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I said it once, but I felt dirty afterwards.

― G Man, Monday, 11 August 2003 10:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, and I say "cowabunga!" a bit too

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 11 August 2003 10:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Did anyone ever read Ron Rosenbaum's article on the etymology of Dude? It's quite interesting:

Everybody thinks "dude ranch" came first and was somehow the origin. But whence came the dude in "dude ranch"? Before the dude-ranch dude there was dude as dandy, the dude as an urban aesthete; it was the urbanity of dude that made the dude-ranch dude dude-ish. The print version of the unabridged O.E.D. curiously calls "dude" originally "a factitious slang term." "Factitious slang"? I think what they’re suggesting is something like what happened when the guys who made Swingers tried to make "money" a slang term for "cool." God, was that a disaster. Totally embarrassing, dude. Why did "dude" succeed while "money" died a well-deserved death? It may have something to do with its origins.

"Dude" may have been made up "factitiously" (I’d like to know the dude who did it), but according to the O.E.D., it first came into vogue in New York about 1883, in connection with what the O.E.D. calls "the ‘aesthetic craze’ of the day."

"Aesthetic craze": Don’t you love it, dude? This is important to remember in considering the way "dude" has evolved, the way it’s come to be used a century after its origin, the aesthetic dimension of the word. Yes, it can be used simply to refer to a person or class of persons—the way I first heard it in my suburb in reference to "surfer dudes." But more interesting is the way its origins in an "aesthetic craze" can be linked to the way "dude" (or rather "Duuuude!") had become a one-word expression of awe and wonder. A simple awestruck Duuuude! as a way of expressing aesthetic approbation of, a crazed mutual aesthetic appreciation of, something someone says, or some phenomenon someone points out. An acknowledgment of shock and awe—or, in some cases, schlock and awe.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 11 August 2003 10:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude!

― Millar (Millar), Monday, 11 August 2003 10:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Aww, dude!! man! yeah! I say that shit all the time.

― Millar (Millar), Monday, 11 August 2003 10:35 (twenty-two years ago)

now, dude, that's a name no-one would self-apply where I come from.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 11 August 2003 10:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I do, but always self-consciously.

― Dan I., Monday, 11 August 2003 10:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I pretty much have limited myself to using it when I am playing dumb American on ILX. Or when I forget someone's name.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:00 (twenty-two years ago)

only in a wanky stoner/skater American accent that I know Sarah doesn't like but I do it anyway and I'm slowly destroying the foundations of a wonderful relationship

― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:02 (twenty-two years ago)

'Tis entirely involuntary at this point.

― The Dude Abides (nickalicious), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I say it once in awhile.

― Larcole (Nicole), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I more of a 'man' man than a 'dude' dude

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I say dude WAY too much.
1 - I'm horribly bad at remembering people's names.
2 - I tend to hang out with musician types who speak in antiquated slang.
3 - When addressing a group of people informally, what do you say? Is it, "You guys...?"

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Monday, 11 August 2003 11:42 (twenty-two years ago)

is it true that it was reintroduced into the street vernacular (from archaic jargon) by P.G.Wodehouse?

interesting. i do not much now, but have in the past made much use of "dude". with a particular friend of mine, it's gone through various permutations, becoming "dode," with the "o" pronounced like the letter o (though more often it's dooooooooode). the most recent permutation - "dode" became "wodehouse" (or, more often "woooooodehouse"). anyway.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:02 (twenty-two years ago)

It's astonishing how much I say "dude". I don't even notice it until someone points it out. Every so often I will bust out a "dude, man, dude" as well.

― Carey (Carey), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I do not say "dude" at all ever.

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

DUDE!

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:09 (twenty-two years ago)

dudemandude!

― Carey (Carey), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Crops up a number of times for me.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I know an A&R guy who says it all the time and wears a trucker hat. How perfect can you get?

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

geeta wins this thread.

― bnw (bnw), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:29 (twenty-two years ago)

awesome man!!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 11 August 2003 12:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah I say it. I didn't used to, but then sometime mid-college, I lived with four other guys and we said it ALL THE TIME. As Sarah sez, it is good for addressing a group: "Hey, um, dudes?"

The new thing I've been saying lately is "absolutely" as an all-purpose "I agree with you." It's the new "oh, totally."

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 11 August 2003 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Absolutely!

Get in jaymc.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Monday, 11 August 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Absolutely is the new totally? Hmm, I've always said absolutely but have never used totally.

― Susan (Susan), Monday, 11 August 2003 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I totally say totally so much I totally don't even realize I've just said it, dudeman. Absolutely.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 11 August 2003 14:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I do it. But usually only at the beginning of a conversation, like I'll pick up the phone and say "Talk to me, dude."

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 11 August 2003 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

hey duane, right on, bro-dude@!!

i say it in all the ways mentioned here i think. i also say it as a slightly sneery One-Size-Fits-All name for a person in a story, "so Dude walks by me, right, and little does he know there's a rattlesnake a-crawlin up his boot"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 11 August 2003 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Always, always. I can't get rid of it. Not that I've tried.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 11 August 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

No way, dude.

― luna (luna.c), Monday, 11 August 2003 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude, I totally say it.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 11 August 2003 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I went on tour with a friend who says it twice a sentence and that put it in my active vocabulary. Mostly in the sense of "Dude!", like "Dude! What are you doing?" or "Dude! Stop it already!"

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 11 August 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I only use dude in the context of "the electricity-dude" or "the tai-chi-dude" or "the library-dude" when talking about otherwise anonymous professionals/tradesmen.

― toraneko (toraneko), Monday, 11 August 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

My band has dramatically increased by dude usage. Found in such phrases as: "Whatcha got there, dude...", meaning 'give me a bite of that sandwich.' We also taught one guy's 2 year old son to say "daddy dude!"

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 11 August 2003 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

i use it strickly when talking to random people i deal with day-today (store clerks, couriers ect.) in quick sentences – like "thanks, dude" or "sorry, dude", "latters, dude". that's it.

― dyson (dyson), Monday, 11 August 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

i say 'dude' a lot.
growing up in oregon
we used cali slang

(except it was all
several years out of date
because so were we)

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Monday, 11 August 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Skipping 7 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

embrace what you don't understand!! don't hate!!

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:06 (twenty-two years ago)

dude

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:06 (twenty-two years ago)

dude, bonus

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:08 (twenty-two years ago)

it happens. It's usually a sign of affection so I won't hear no hating. Then again, I can't stand to hear someone say "hella," and if they did I'd probably say dude in a very non-affectionate way.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

haha dy00ds: Pronunciation: 'düd also 'dyüd !!

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Then again, I can't stand to hear someone say "hella," and if they did I'd probably say dude in a very non-affectionate way.

As in:
"Hella."
"Oh, dude."

― Ess, Monday, 11 August 2003 18:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha! I hella say hella.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Depending on tone/inflection etc, "dude" can mean about 50 different things.

yes, this is the key

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

My band has a song called "Hella Avante," which is the best/most annoying name for a song ever. No one knows what it means.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I said it once, but I felt dirty afterwards.

Was that because the sentence you used it in was, "Dude, look out for the fecal shower!" and then you pushed your friend out of the way and took his place?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 11 August 2003 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

That was you below my window?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 11 August 2003 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

What Ess said. I grew up in California, it's my birthright. Also, the SoCal "dude" is an almost infinitely useful term of address: its exact meaning responds really sensitively to slight changes in tone, volume, placement within a sentence, et al. A well-placed "fuckin' dude" is worth at least a thousand words.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Monday, 11 August 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

A well-placed "fuckin' dude" is worth at least a thousand words.

"I'll take 'Sentences That Are Also True Without Quotation Marks' for $600, Alex!"

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 11 August 2003 19:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I call almost everyone I know dude, and they do the same to me. Plus the Big Lebowski! We can't forget that.

― Alexis (Alexis), Monday, 11 August 2003 21:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Not with it being referenced every other thread we can't

― oops (Oops), Monday, 11 August 2003 21:43 (twenty-two years ago)

My ex taught me how to say "hella". I made fun of him at first but now I find it hella sweet.

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 11 August 2003 22:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I've said it like three or four times in my whole life, and yet I realized the other day that my characters say it hella often. wtf?

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 11 August 2003 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to be all about the dude. These days I'm all about the Arrrrr.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 08:57 (twenty-two years ago)

seven months pass...

Yes. ;(

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:21 (twenty-one years ago)

It has replaced the British "mate" of memory. Not that I used that all that often. Assimilation is a painful process.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't think British people can say "dude" though

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Gareth?

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude abides

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:25 (twenty-one years ago)

all the time but interchange it with man, homey and guy. i never need to remember anyone's name.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

It worries me because I never EVER said "Dude" when I lived in the States, but now it seems to have just become punctuation of some kind.

― Super-Kate (kate), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:27 (twenty-one years ago)

said multiple times daily.

― Kingfish Balzac (Kingfish), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Entire conversations can be built around this monosyllabic uber-word.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't think I've ever said it...always makes me think of Ross from Friends saying it. What wrong with 'Chap"?

― winterland, Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Campaign For The Reintroduction Of 'Old Bean'

― winterland, Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish Gareth would say 'durd'

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm losing it. I just called my database "dude!"

― Super-Kate (kate), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I just called one of my account managers dude, but hey, he's a dude, he doesn't mind

― chris (chris), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:38 (twenty-one years ago)

So is a "dude ranch" what I think it is?

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it like the Bunny Ranch but for dudes?

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Doesn't dude actually literally mean cattle penis or something like that?

― Super-Kate (kate), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

not in English

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Cabbage is the only person I've ever noticed using dude and he sounded kind of silly but also kind of Cabbagey and right.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, but in Olde West American it did...

― Super-Kate (kate), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Only in the third person.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I must admit I use it all the frikkin time and now can't help myself.

― chris (chris), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

cattle...penis?

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"Dude ranch" -> where tourists (dudes, as in dandies, fops, like "those who are 'duded up'") go to see cowboys.

(It's a New York term originally. It didn't mean penis.)

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Yup. Probably sounds funny in my none-more-middle-class English accent. I think I've picked it (and 'yo') up from Australian Marianna. Who is a dude.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I say dude all the time. I blame Geeta.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 14:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I do say "dude" all the time, thanks to one of my roomates. I have even found myself saying "sweet" a couple times lately, which is where I draw the line.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 14:38 (twenty-one years ago)

i rarely say dude, unless in jest. i tend to pick up things that i hear other people saying. i find myself calling people 'bruv' or 'boss', i say 'man' a lot more than i realise. yesterday i called a girl darlin' and she looked like she wanted to smack me, it was experimetal cockney-esque drunkedness. dude.

― sun-maid resin, Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:11 (twenty-one years ago)

guilty.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

Do you HAVE to say "Dude" all the time?

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 06:57 (twenty-one years ago)

why is calling girls "dude" the bestest thing ever?

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 06:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I say 'dude' all the time, and I'm from Dublin, which makes it faintly ridiculous. But I use it more as an exclamation. Dude! I wish I could stop saying it, though. I also wish people would stop saying 'I'm all about the...' and 'I'm loving...'

But perhaps I'm just an old fart who doesn't want to see language progress.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:00 (twenty-one years ago)

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