Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1901 — The Originof the Dude. [ARTICLE]

The Originof the Dude.

Th« word “duu£,” M applied to 4 fop or exquisite, came suddenly into use about 1882-3, and all that we learn from the dictionaries is that its actual origin is not recorded. The Century Dictionary says that it "perhaps originated in London, England,” while the New English Dictionary expresses the more general belief that it came into vogue in New York about I tha beginning of 1883. Considering the number of German immigrant# i into the United State# we ahould naturally suspect it to have been auggeated by aome German dialect, saya Walter W. Skeat, in the Athenaeum. The problem of ita origin does not seem to be difficult. It can hardly be other than an abbreviated form of dudendop, a blockhead, a common term of depreciation in many parta.