Comments on: Dude, where’s my definition?

By: Shane R

Shane R — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:01:10 +0000

Happy to be so widely loved!

By: Gene Wilkes

Gene Wilkes — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:06:26 +0000

Interesting this “dude” conversation. Where I come from in the Caribbean “Dood ” is short for “dou dou”, (“doux” meaning sweet) from French Patois which was once widely spoken in Trinidad where I live and what is now called Kweyol in places like St Lucia and Dominica.
So lovers would call each other “doud” or “douds” when they feeling romantic.

By: Steve Hall

Steve Hall — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:08:12 +0000

In fact, the correct spelling is “haole.” I’m from California; Ventura and Los Angeles to be precise, and while I’m not a surfer myself, I know a bit about the culture. My dictionary defines “haole,” but not “howlie,” although the former is pronounced as you might sound out the latter.

By: Louise Giorgi

Louise Giorgi — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:47:12 +0000

I totally love the term ‘dude’ – it always, always makes me smile. I always interpret it as a friendly term of address. As a ‘Howlie’, and a British one at that, I feel I can’t use it spontaneously to anyone – girl or boy – without feeling a little ridiculous; it’s just doesn’t form a part of my natural northern English ‘idiolect’, which (I think?) is the pretentious sociolinguistic term for the idiosyncratic way we all use language, which is unique to each of us. I agree with Helen that it’s not one word or phrase that defines us; it’s delivery, accent, tone of voice, social class even, how we play with words (or not) that makes up our own linguistic personality. It’s definitely not about one word.

By: iTeach

iTeach — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:42:28 +0000

Haha, great! I’m going to experiement with this on my students. See if any of them over-use words that actually define them in some way. I can think of a few now. The psychology of words. Love it dude!

Daniel

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:20:43 +0000

@JPersico

Right there with you on what you are saying. I know plenty of Lexicographers alright. A fair few actually ARE dudes!

Words are well nang!

By: Andrej T

Andrej T — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:52:19 +0000

Dude!!!

Ok, did dictionaries become cool when I wasn’t looking? Nice blog.

By: Jeffery Lebowski

Jeffery Lebowski — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:49:58 +0000

use the word as a greeting.

we all started using it more after it became apparent that “dude” is also a camels forskin.

By: WordsWurther

WordsWurther — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:44:44 +0000

I think you may have hit on something here Shane. I’m thinking of a wider issue-that of making assumptions about someone due to their particular usage of English. Think about young folks who actually dumb down their language to identify themselves as being youthful and unconcerned about convention-for example. WW Dude.

By: JPersico

JPersico — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:23:33 +0000

@Shane

“What good is a language if you are the single person that comprehends it?”

I completely agree with you: if only one person understands it, it’s no good. That’s why I don’t like a lot of poetry and other literature that make me think that perhaps I should have eaten more meat when I was a kid so my synapses would connect as well as certain authors’ synapses do, haha.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree that one person using a word doesn’t mean anything, but that is not what we are referring to here; people tend to belittle their own lexical choices, which is what I felt you were doing by saying:

“words in my vernacular that are used differently to their intended meaning. ”

A lot of people tend to think slang isn’t real language because it is composed of words that aren’t “real” or, in this case, that are used in ways other than their “intended” meanings. Consequently, they reprimand themselves and think they shouldn’t use it. But, I say, if millions of speakers use “dude” as an interjection, as a vocative (I think), etc, then they can’t be wrong! Right? At least that’s what I think modern day lexicographers believe.