n.by 1991, from dude in the surfer/teen slang sense + fem. ending -ette. Earlier (in the Old West sense) were dudine (1883), dudess (1885). if (window.googletag) {googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('dcomMobileSERPDisplayTopAd-300x250'); });} else {console.error('googletag not defined, dcomMobileSERPDisplayTopAd-300x250');}