The implication of an individual who is unfamiliar with the demands of life outside of urban settings gave rise to the definition of dude as a city slicker, or "an Easterner in the [United States] West."[1] Thus "dude" was used to describe the wealthy men of the rustic western expansion of the United States during the 19th century by German settlers of the American Old East.[citation needed] This use is reflected in the dude ranch, a guest ranch catering to urbanites seeking more rural experiences. Dude ranches began to appear in the American West in the early 20th century, for wealthy Easterners who came to experience the "cowboy life." The implicit contrast is with those persons accustomed to a given frontier, agricultural, mining, or other rural setting. This usage was still in use in the 1950s in America, as a word for a tourist – of either gender – who attempts to dress like the local culture but fails.[9]
The term was also used as a job description, such as "bush hook dude" as a position on a railroad in the 1880s. For an example, see the Stampede Tunnel.
In the early 1960s, dude became prominent in surfer culture as a synonym of guy" or "fella. The female equivalent, which is used less often, is "dudette" or "dudess", although dude is also used as a unisex term. This more general meaning of dude started creeping into the mainstream in the mid-1970s. Dude is generally used informally to address someone (“Dude, I’m glad you finally called”) or refer to another person (“That dude is stealing my car”).[10] Some usages in mainly American pop culture have contributed to the spread of this use; for example, see the 2000 comedy film Dude, Where's My Car? and the examples in the next section.