But what’s a dude?ĭictionaries struggle with this question. So what does the word itself mean? I can tell you what a mother is, and I can tell you what a horse is. There may not be any obvious difference in denotation between these cases, but the difference in connotation is, you’ll appreciate from experience, pretty major. Just think of the last time you did something awesome in the presence of a friend who affirmed your awesomeness with the exclamation Duuude! Or the last time you said something objectionable to someone who began setting you straight with a firm and sober Dude. In Mandarin, depending on how I intone the single syllable ma, I could be saying “mother” ( mā), or I could be saying something as radically distinct as “horse” ( mă).ĭude has a comparable quality. It says close, but dude, not too close.ĭude may be the most Mandarin Chinese word in American English. No matter how I use the word, it always implies the same thing: solidarity without intimacy. But hey, I did, so there's hope.Contemplate this, dude: that when I call you dude, there’s a whole range of things I might mean-you’ll understand me from my intonation and the overall context-but each time, I’m also reinforcing a specific kind of social relationship. So, sorry, I think you'll have to get used to calling women "dude". I would never call a guy "chico".ĭudette? Really, dude? No one says dudette, unless they're being self-conscious about it. Sometimes I say/hear "chica", which is also familiar, but I live in New York and hear it a lot. Don't even think of saying that to a stranger. Sometimes I say/hear "chick", but that's very familiar. I don't think there is a word that perfectly fits that. But the kids these days, they pretty much use it as gender-neutral.Ī female equivalent would have to be both familiar and common. If you've been hearing it for thirty years and it still hits your ear as exclusively male, maybe that will never change. Like I said, I don't think about it anymore. Then I heard it more often and from other people. The guy (yes, guy) who called me "dude" said it was a term of endearment, so that put me at ease. The first time I was addressed as dude, I was an adult, and this was about fifteen years ago. I am so used to hearing people address each other as dude, I didn't even notice! The people who thought Stewart was being too familiar were largely older, or more formal generally, or in the press and found it a breach of etiquette. That tells me dude is rather common, relatively. Jon Stewart called the President "dude" during an interview on The Daily Show. What do Californians say (as "dude" in my description seems to come from there)? What do the surfers say?Īny suggestions? It may be the suggestion is that there is no perfect parallel.ĭude, as a colloquial term of address, is gender-neutral. dudette: cute, but hasn't caught on (but could it?)Īustralians have "bruce" and "sheila" (I hear from the movies) but that just doesn't fly in AmE (and maybe that's already out of fashion).babe: might work, but sounds a little too diminutive (or does it?).So what are some suggestions for acceptable female-gendered alternatives? "Dude, why are you squirting rubbing alcohol on the grill to start it up?"Īgain as in the other "guys" case, it might be culturally acceptable to say "dude" to a female, but I'm not sure, and it feels a little wrong (and has for 30 years).
The usage I'm thinking of is that "dude" nowadays is used primarily as a way to address a person very colloquially, e.g.: "Dude" is masculine what is the feminine version? another one similar to "What is a feminine version of 'guys'?"
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