137. Dude
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
4.7 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Exclamation; sign of agreement OR disapproval; gendered, but circumstantially gender-neutral; term of endearment: 'dude' can do it all! But its connotations of a laid-back, cool, masculine person are only a few decades old; before that, it meant...an uptight city-dwelling tourist?? Dude, seriously!
There's more about this episode, and a transcript, at theallusionist.org/dude. Callie Wright's podcast is Queersplaining, which you can find in the kinds of places you obtain this podcast, and at queersplaining.com.
Want to be barked awake/gently introduced to the day by me saying the word of your choice? Become a patreon at patreon.com/allusionist by the end of this month of June 2021, and I will record the word or short phrase of your choice to use as your phone alert or alarm! All patrons get to choose a word, and all patrons get the recordings of all the patrons’ choices. This is going to be fun. Oh and you’re helping fund the show too, of course.
The Allusionist theme is by Martin Austwick. Hear Martin’s own songs at palebirdmusic.com or search for Pale Bird on Bandcamp and Spotify, and he’s @martinaustwick on Twitter and Instagram. His new podcast is Neutrino Watch, and it's different every time you download it.
The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Support the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/allusionist. Stay in touch at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionists how and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the illusionist in which I, Helen Zoltzman, open up language to find a smaller version |
| 0:09.4 | of language within, and another within that, and another within that. |
| 0:14.0 | Today's episode is about a word that can be a compliment, a term of endearment, an exclamation |
| 0:19.4 | of surprise, a sort of punctuation in speech, a slang term for a person, and that word is |
| 0:26.1 | dude. It's origins really piqued to my interest, even though there is, alas, no proof of the |
| 0:32.1 | much repeated claim that it originally meant an elephant's bottom, or a camel's foreskin. |
| 0:39.2 | If you do have evidence that this is legit etymology, please submit it to me at your nearest |
| 0:44.0 | convenience. A version of this episode originally played on the podcast Queer's Blaining by |
| 0:49.3 | Callie Wright, so big thanks to Callie for letting me share it with you, plus I've added |
| 0:53.9 | some more bits of information about this surprising word. There are also a few swears. |
| 1:00.2 | Before we kick off, I wanted to tell you if you go to patreon.com slash illusionist and |
| 1:06.0 | sign up to patreonize the show by the end of June 2021, you and all the pre-existing patrons |
| 1:12.7 | get this incredible offer. You choose a word or short phrase, and I will record it for you |
| 1:19.6 | to use as your phone alert or alarm. And you will get access to all of the recordings of |
| 1:25.4 | everyone's choices of words to play with as well. Submissions are anonymous if that was |
| 1:30.1 | a concern, and I am enjoying that some of you have supplied directions for me, such as |
| 1:35.2 | barked angrily as if telling off a naughty rabbit, and as if you were Robert Pattinson playing |
| 1:40.5 | an odd 17 year old, but actually a hundred year old vampire. I'm going to have to start |
| 1:45.4 | training up to perfect my RPATS in Twilight performance, sparkly abs and everything. Anyway, |
| 1:50.6 | get over to patreon.com slash illusionist to sign up and the instructions of how to submit |
| 1:55.4 | your word are over there. Okay dudes, on with the show. |
| 2:06.0 | My name is Callie right, and this is queer explaining. There was about a year between me coming |
... |
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