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The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.
1. InformalAn Easterner or city person who vacations on a ranch in the West.
2. InformalA man who is very fancy or sharp in dress and demeanor.
3. Slang
a. A man; a fellow.
b. A person of either sex.
tr.v.dud·ed, dud·ing, dudes Slang
To dress elaborately or flamboyantly:got all duded up for the show.
interj. Slang
Used to express approval, satisfaction, or congratulations.
[Respelling of late 19th-centuryAmerican slangdood, fop, dandy, probably from shortening ofYankee Doodle, a bumpkin who sticks a feather in his cap in imitation of fashionable macaronies in the American popular song "Yankee Doodle" : YANKEE + DOODLE, fool; see DOODLEBUG.]
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.