Is it true that “dude” is a reduction from “a person who respects high American culture”?

In social networks, there is often a statement that the word “dude” was invented by dudes in the 1950s and actually means “a person who respects high American culture.” We decided to check if this is so.

Explanation that a dude is an abbreviation, can be found on social networks and on the blog platforms: for example, in Twitter, "VKontakte" Livejournal or "Zen". This statement fixes the dictionary that is common on the network "Salp jargon". Finally, such etymology appears in "Wikipedia"With reference to the book"Kharkov in bikes and jokes".

Vasily Aksyonov introduced the word “dude” into literary everyday life, who used it in his novel ”Star ticket", Published in the magazine" Youngness "in the summer of 1961:“ After all, no matter what happens to you, this rain will pour and pour, and the sea will not move, and the sun will not look out, and you will not see the horizon. Helped Fram. He climbed out of the water and shouted: "Dude! You just need you."

But Aksyonov did not come up with this word, but only fixed its use. So in the 1950s, young people turned to each other, who were called dudes in the Soviet press. The word "dude" is found in the diaries of that time. For example, in the diary of Lydia Barlas for December 4, 1958 (in the National Corps of the Russian language erroneously specified 1956, the time of the first entry) there is such fragment: “Words in everyday life are the following:“ at a high level ”,“ fact ”, the dudes are called“ dude ”and“ chuvikha ”.”

Historian of Soviet culture Dmitry Kozlov At the request of “verified” I found even earlier examples in the archives - however, they all concern the word “chuvikha”. For example, a record from the diary of Mikhail Krasilnikov for November 14, 1953: “It turns out that Valkin“ Chuvikha ”is the elder of the second year of the II year of Nelly Vasiliev. I don’t know her, but she seems to know me. ” Even earlier, on November 8, in the same diary there is another feminite-“Chuveva”: “Mark gathered a“ musical ”society-a pipe-saxophonist, a drummer and businessman Abramson. Later, Salik came with his "Chuyye" Lilka. "

In the newspapers, the word "chuvikha" is also found before the publication of the "star ticket". In the newspaper "Shift" for May 24, 1955, in an article by writer George Baldsh there is such a dialogue:

“ - Dear, you will not despair. Everything will form, as the old Tolstoy said. In May, when all nature blooms, we will play a tremendous wedding. I will be a good husband and an indispensable son -in -law, believe me. And now I so want to make some gift to our Chuvikha.
- To whom?
- Sorry. My future wife. "

And in January 1961, a feuilleton about youth customs called the “annual balance of Pimcikov” was published in the same “shift”, where there is an exclamation “My Chuvihs what you need!”.

Thus, the female form of the "Chuvikha" is found in the texts known at this moment earlier than the male "dude". It is possible that she is primary. Long before the advent of dudes, philologist Alexei Barannikov mentions the word "chuvikha" in the article "Gypsy elements in the Russian thieves' Argo"(1931).

So far, this is the only scientific version of the origin of "Chuvikhi". With "dude" is much more complicated. The same Vasily Aksyonov in the book "In search of the genre"(First published in 1971 in the magazine" New World "entitled" Search of the genre ") so sets out the history of the word" dude ":" This word comes from the ordinary "man". When you blow in a pipe or saxophone for several hours in a row, the tongue is swells and there is no strength to pronounce the ordinary “man”, but it turns out “CEE-e-k”, “CVEEK” and in the end “Dude”. ”

It is unlikely that Aksyonov’s explanation can be considered reliable. But it is characteristic that none of his contemporaries who found the dudes and thaw is a story about the abbreviation from the phrase “A person who respects high American culture” - neither with Aksyonov himself, for example, the saxophonist Alexei Kozlov, who is in his book “Goat on Sax»In detail talks about the popularity of the words" dude "and" chuvikha "during his youth.

The earliest mention of the version of the secret sense of the word "dude" was found in the book of Oleg Platonov "Crown of Russian Crown: History of the Russian People in the twentieth century"(1996). This author paid a lot of attention to the anti -Semitic theories of the conspiracy, his The main works - “Russia under the rule of the Masons”, “Myths and the truth about pogroms”, “The secret world government. War against Russia ”, several of his books (including the“ Crown of Russia ”of Russia Included The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the federal list of extremist materials). In 2020, Platonova condemned For four years, conditionally under Article 282 of the Criminal Code “Exciting Hate or Enjoyment”. Platonov consistently accuses Jews and the “world government” for all the troubles of Russia (created, according to his conviction, Jews), and also denies the Holocaust.

In his book, Platonov admits that the word "dude" fell into the vocabulary of Soviet youth thanks to external enemies. Here is one of the fragments: “Was the word“ dude ”into the turn of this, in fact, the“ savage environment ”by foreign special services or some offspring of the Soviet bureaucratic top, it grasped the most important thing in their life-worshiping the West and contempt for Russia.” At the same time, Platonov himself was born in 1950, he did not find the described era at a conscious age, and could not meet such a decoding in written sources. Most likely, he is the author of this statement.

We can conclude that the etymology of the word "dude" is still not clear to the end. However, the theory of the secret sense and abbreviation from the “man who respects high American culture” was introduced into everyday life by a well -known supporter of the theories of the conspiracy and the negative of the Holocaust, and this happened 40 years after the widespread spread of the word “dude” among Soviet youth.

Photo on the cover: caricature from the magazine "Crocodile"

Not true

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