A linguistic study of the word “dude” among, well, dudes.
Kiesling says in the fall edition of American Speech that the word derives its power from something he calls cool solidarity ? an effortless kinship that’s not too intimate. Cool solidarity is especially important to young men who are under social pressure to be close with other young men, but not enough to be suspected as gay.
In other words: Close, dude, but not that close.
“It’s like man or buddy, there is often this male-male addressed term that says, ‘I’m your friend but not much more than your friend,'” said Kiesling, whose research focuses on language and masculinity.
Kiesling identifies any number of uses of the word, as well as its frequency of usage among and between genders. The word’s been traced back quite a ways, though it caught on in the current fashion, evidently, in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Of course, now I’m going to be incredibly sensitive about when I use it …
That’s funny. If I use the word “dude” it’s because you’ve torqued me in some way and I don’t wish to use your name.
I think I might need anger counseling. Or more time on the range.
Ah, so it’s a passive-aggressive means of address, mocking the familiarity inherent to the term by using it to not call someone by name. Interesting. 🙂
(Actually, flashing back to the noir era, I seem to think of “pal” in just the same way. “Now listen to me, pal …”)
I tend to use it …
… in a self-consciously joking way to others, “Hey, dude, what’s chillin?”
… to refer in third person to some fellow I encountered whom I want to refer to familiarly but not by name . “So Dude was standing there, scratching his head, and saying, ‘WTF?'”
It also seems to me to be a means of disassociation…kind of frightening actually, rather like Buffalo Bill calling his victims “it”. Ack! 🙂
The third person ref. is common, I think. Or, as for stoners, when they can’t actually remember the dude’s name. 🙂
“Dave? Dave’s not here …”
More dude research info here.