Noted without comment--(dude)

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

  This 1883 item isn't surprising.  Earlier that year the highly insulting poem (to dudes) had appeared and popularized the term "dude." The dudes were seen to be shallow, brainless young men who were slavishly imitating what they thought was high British culture--tight pants, pointed shoes, high collar, monacle, top hat, cane, cigarette, and a highly affected manner of speaking.  The cartoonists and other humorists of that time had a field-day with them.

 Gerald Cohen

        Original message:
> Willimantic [CT] Chronicle:
>
> Aug 8, 1883: Is "dude" libelous? Not long since a suit was brought in New York City on the ground that it was; and more recently a vigorous Bloomington woman cowhided a clerical editor for calling her a "dudess"
>
> Michael McKernan
>
>
>