Q. When was the term "dude" first used?
A. Apparently, in the 1800s,when it was first applied to a fop, or young man who dressed up in fancy clothes, derived from the words "dandy" and "doodle." Originally, the word was pronounced with two syllables as "doo-dy." Its first use in a printed work was in Robert Hill's 1883 poem, "The Dude." It was about this time that the pronunciation evolved into the single-syllable "dood" we know today. In the 20th century, it was applied to a tenderfoot Easterner vacationing out West, giving us the term "dude ranch." And, beginning in the 1930s, it was used as a general term for any man.