Does anyone remember what form of casual address came between "man" and "dude", particularly in the late 1970's and earliest 1980's? The Ngrams below show that "man" was in remarkably sharp decline through the 1970's, so that I remember using it in jr/sr high, but not later, in working life. Of course the vast majority of instances of "man" were something else, though I do believe the decline is primarily due to its disappearance from direct address — though the peak of 2nd-wave feminism in the 1970's also reduced its use in contexts like "Man does not live by bread alone." Also, although the "dude" graph is much larger, it's grotesquely out of proportion, so that the word is only 1% or less as common as "man," as seen in the third Ngram. I don't recall ever hearing a person saying "dude" in anything other than "dude ranch" before some time in the 1990's. I have no recollection of what noun we'd use in utterances like "Oh, man!" or "Man, check this out" — only that neither sounds like my recollections of working in a university environment. In fact, over the last 220 years, "man" has never seen lower usage (in print) than it did from about 1980-1995. ======================================================= ======================================================= =======================================================
I always thought "dude" came out of surfer lingo in the early 80s, then it exploded due to teenage mutant ninja turtles. I'm sure there were monthly memes that people called each other, and there are other assorted words people used and still use to mean the same thing: "chief" for example. I feel like "daddy" came about then, but not in the same way it's used by women today. I feel "daddy-o" was about this time, if someone said that, I'd picture them in a leisure suit. Late 70s and early 80s is the rise and fall of disco, so perhaps look up lingo associated with that. "Fly guy" is something I associate with disco, but I have no idea if it's from actual contemporary television of later period pieces like that 70s show or disco stu in the Simpsons. I know there is a word you are looking for, and it's on the tip of my tongue. Travolta's character would have been called it multiple times during Saturday Night Fever, so maybe watch that?
I immediately thought of the VH song “Unchained”— 1981 — where DLR says “hey man” in the spoken section. Of course, that doesn't prove anything. But those graphs don't address the vocative function of "man" in spoken language, and if the comparatively tiny usage of "dude" in comparison to "man" is anything to go by, the massive decline during the 80s could not possibly be accounted for by a corresponding decline in its spoken vocative usage. Unless I'm missing something? There's no way to account for the proportion of "man" as a vocative and "man" in all of its other meanings; and this is only in print, no less.
It's difficult, you can try and be creative and make your own conclusions but it's still not representative of actual informal speech. Apparently you can use quotes, which did result in something interesting, which sort of validates some of what's already been said: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22hey+man%22%2C%22hey+dude%22&year_start=1930&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3
If you look at that graph "hey dude" was actually more frequent than "hey man" for a brief period around 2000, which may make sense since written works probably lag actual speech trends by some amount. This is just my guess, I doubt it would be a full decade, as I feel too, that 'dude' peaked around 1990, as evidenced by this track:
Actually, "guy" by itself is one I had forgotten. "Daddy-o" is a bit before my time. It's from the beat generation, 1950's into early 1960's, or the one before that, and even then a subculture of its time. Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra could have said it, but it feels a little more avant-garde-in-their-time. A James Dean character could use it. He'd be a drummer in some small jazz ensemble in a basement dive. As for "daddy," it was new before it was old, right? Or does that go the other way around? I thought it was funny when Nucky in Boardwalk Empire (1920's) was telling his showgirl to stop calling him "daddy" in bed. And then Joni Mitchell has that line from the 1970's in Carey(?), "You're a mean old daddy, but I like you." There was that 1970's "Hi, guy" TV ad for shaving cream or something, where the guy opens his medicine cabinet and some other guy has opened its other side.
"Dude" was pretty common in 1986-89 midwest America (my high school years) but I do recall it having a certain novelty or not tripping quite naturally off the tongue. Did Spicoli use it in Fast Times at Ridgemont High? That was '82.
My understanding of the use of "man" in the US came from when racism was rampant, and black men, regardless of age, were called "boy." The response from the black community was for the males to all call each other "man." It seeped over into the jazz, big band and swing musicians who didn't care about race, and emerged into general usage starting in the late 50's and early 60's.
The thing that amuses me about the use of "man" is how it changes depending on who says it. Not sure that this is an actual quote but I whipped these up to illustrate the point:
What if… McCoy had a hippie phase before med school? I think that kind of works with most generic slang like that: “My grandma died” “Oh shit, dude.” “I just kick flipped a stroller.” “Oh shit, dude.”
If you're talking about the vocative case (addressing people), there was a time before "dude" or "bro" when you might refer to somebody as "pal" or "buddy" or "Mac." Those were a little friendlier than "man." As I pulled up to the curb, the cop tapped my car's fender. "You can't park here, Mac." "Let's go get a beer, buddy. This scene is over." "Take it from me, pal," the bartender said. "You'll never win at this game if you play by his rules." Is this what you're referring to?
Let's not forget "Ace." Of course, if (like me) you attended a high school with a mixed population of Italian and Jewish kids, you heard a lot of Italian and Yiddish words that I wouldn't have any idea how to spell.
Yes, these are good. Speaking of Yiddish, I already use boychik (once) between one of my characters and another. It's interesting to realize how well one needs to understand the relationships and situations where each of these does or doesn't fit in a given era.
1) didn't know the name for that 2) It's a very interesting distinction: a) I saw this man walking down the street. b) I saw this dude walking down the street. c) I saw this guy walking down the street. d) I saw this pal walking down the street. e) I saw this mac walking down the street. f) I saw this buddy walking down the street. g) I saw this ace walking down the street. e) I saw this sport walking down the street. Spoiler: Okay in BrE, not so much in AmE f) I saw this cunt walking down the street.
In the 60's and early 70's there was also Cat. You hear Jimmi Hendrix say it a lot in interviews— "I dig Strauss and Wagner - those cats are good." A lot of these terms originated from black slang and the white community picked it up through musicians, from blues players to jazz and rock-and-roll. In fact the terms jazz, rock-and-roll, and hip-hop all began as black slang for sex. Jazz was originally Jass and meant ass, as in "This music has some real ass to it". Rock and roll and hip-hop also refer directly to sexy music, and were code terms for sex. There was a Valley Girl song in the early 80's, MTV era, by I think Moon Unit Zappa (Frank's daughter)? It was super popular and immediately in its wake everybody in the high-school/college age range were talking like valley girls. That's where a great deal of 80's slang came from that people still use for fun even today. I think it really turbocharged the use of Dude, or maybe it was something else? I need to look up the lyrics.
I don't think any of this is quite to the point you're looking for, but I remember some terms from when I was in high school in the late 70's. Redneck was really big. We'd say "Man, that's really red!" meaning it's a really mean thing to do, like you're really being an asshole. Also of course there was gay. It didn't mean homosexual, it meant the same thing the term retarded meant. They were both just ways of saying something was stupid. As in "Don't be gay!" Or "That's retarded!" I think if we keep remembering these terms we might come up with what you're looking for. But I can't remember any other terms that would take the place of Man or Dude. There was Freak, but it was a little different. You might say "Hey, freak!" if you and the other guy are both stoners. I recently read The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, where the kids were divided into the greasers and the soc's (socialites). The stories were set in the 50's or 60's. When I got to high school an older friend who was already there (and was a stoner) told me I was going to have to decide if I'm a freak or a soc. I think freak came to replace greaser in the post-60's world for a while. He also told me not to buy an elevator pass from any older kids. The school had 2 floors in some buildings, but no elevators.
Yeah, but Fast Times was well after the fact. Dude was in use through the 60's and 70s. You'd hear it from George Carlin and Cheech & Chong. Fast Times just gave it a bump start and ensured its popularity through the 80's. And after Fast Times it was pretty camp to say it. I think of the way Spicoli talked as being the male version of Valley Girl speak, and I'm sure it was a California surfer thing. Valley dude lingo, also used by Bill & Ted. Since the early 80's the term is used in that sense, like making fun of valley speak (while at the same time reveling in it). When I say dude or flash a peace sign (which I used to do until a decade or so ago) it's in that sense.
A symphony is also about sex. The first movement is the seduction, the second movement is foreplay, the third movement is the act itself. Some symphonies have a fourth movement, a quicky to finish off the evening. If you think about it, the finale of many symphonies finish with an orgasm. Go to about 12:20. I hate to be crude about it, but it's in-out-in-out-in-out-in-out-in-out-in-out-in-out-in-out-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bang---bang---bang---bang---aaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! And they complained in the 50's about rock'n'roll being sex music. (The black community of the era called having sex "doing the old rock and roll.")
I've never heard that. I guess since they do have a climax (as stories do) with a buildup leading to it and then a 'coming down' afterwards it could be linked to sex, but then that's actually the structure of many things. To reduce it to sex is like reducing Eros to nothing but sex (it originally meant everything that's positive and reaffirming in life, the opposite of Thanatos, which is everything negative that leads to death or disease). Or it's like reducing Libido to nothing but sex, as has been done in modern 'culture'. Originally libido meant energy within the psyche (which is an energy system). Here's an excerpt from one of my blog posts: " It brought up an old hypothesis of mine that narrative story structure is based on the sex act—rising action ending in a climax and then rapidly falling back to normal levels. Then maybe a cigarette. But now, in light of these videos, I'll amend that. Narrative form parallels the sex act from the masculine perspective. It isn't just sexual though, it parallels the entire masculine experience—the romantic pursuit, a fight, a quest or a campaign, a hunt, a difficult physical or mental challenge, struggling to fix something broken. It's the heroic masculine approach to life." It's another thing that's fallen victim to the modern reductive materialist attitude that reduces everything to sex as a way of trivializing it. A symphony is about a lot more than sex, it's about all of life. They include all the moods, from wistfulness to rising excitement to overpowering emotion, to triumph or defeat. In fact this is related to another reductive statement I keep running across that says today's heavy metal music is exactly the same thing as classical music. There are of course similarities, but a major difference (the one the postmodernists want you not to notice) is that most heavy metal music is dark and sinister—often demonic, whereas classical music (for the most part) was aimed at the highest and most exalted feelings we're capable of.
You're right about a number of things in your post. And yes, a symphony is more than about the sex act. Yes, it is about life. But procreation is the ultimate life act as well as being a "creative" act; its ultimate purpose is to create another human being.
Another term like dude or man is bro. I'm not sure when that first came into use, might have been in the early 80's? * * * Apparently it was actually in the 70's— "In the 1970s, bro came to refer to a male friend rather than just another man. The word became associated with young men who spend time partying with others like themselves." Source
Tchaikovsky is certainly in a class of his own, a far stretch from for instance Brahms, both as music and metaphor. Then of course there is poor Wagner, spending hours building up to a climax and so often not quite getting there. When one gets interesting people talking, it generally doesn't matter what they talk about or in particular whether they stick to one subject. And that's thanks for reminding us of "cat." Yes, very common, and would possibly suit the character I have in mind.
