Hi all, Thought this might be of some random or trivia (but not trivial) interest: In a linguistics project a colleague of mine found that (according to Seth Lerer) Twain was the first author to use the word "dude." It seems Twain used it pejoratively in Connecticut Yankee to refer to knights as "iron dudes"-- as in knights "duded up" in iron. (I don't know much more, but the source in Project Muse: "Hello, Dude: Philology, Performance, and Technology in Connecticut Yankee" by Seth Lerer) Best, Matt Klauza Matthew D. Klauza Auburn University Auburn, Alabama