From Dandy to Dude

 

The dandy. A man who places a high amount of importance on his appearance, not to mention a few other things. A dandy took pride in his refined speech, his notable leisurely hobbies, and practiced an air of nonchalance, as if he had to care in the world. But, just because you were a dandy, didn't mean you came from an aristocratic background. Many such men were self made and strove to imitate an aristocrat's lifestyle. This was especially true in the late 18th and early 19th century's in Britain. But we're not talking about Britain back in the day. We are looking at the old west.

The dandy has been around for ages but when it came to the mid to late 1800s, the name changed. Whether one was called a dandy or a "dude" (the old west name for such a gentleman) clothes made the man. Such men love to wore their clothes wisely and well. It was an art form to the dandy and he lived to dress.

Did you know they were different kinds of dandies? There was the literary dandy. They were writers and poets such as Oscar Wilde and artists too. When dandies started be called dudes, the term lasted from the 1870s all the way to the 1960s. A at this point, the term dude referred to any guy, and gained popularity in the 1970s.

You've heard of the term all duded up? Yes, it meant getting dressed in fancy clothes. But when the cowboys out west saw such men, they used the term to unfavorably refer to city dwellers. American easterners that had come West looking for adventure. Dude eventually evolved into the city slicker. Dude also found its way into "Dude ranch" which of course was a guest ranch catering to those same city slickers wanting to see what life was like on a ranch. Anyone see the movie City Slickers? It's hilarious. In fact dude ranches started popping up in the American west in the early 20th century. Wealthy easterners came to experience the cowboy life which of course they romanticized. 

There was even a female version of dudette and dudines. Dude also became a job description. It was a position on the railroad in the 1880s called a bush hook dude. In the early 1960s the word gained popularity in surfer cultures. Basically referring to a guy.

So the next time you hear the word dude or read about a dude ranch, you can think the American cowboy of the old west who started using the word to describe dandy.