Influenced by dawdle, from German dudeln (“to play (the bagpipe)”), from dudel (“a bagpipe”), from Czech or Polish dudy (“a bagpipe”), from Turkish düdük (“a flute”). American English dude may be a derivation of doodle.

German variants of the etymon include Dudeltopf, Dudentopf, Dudenkopf, Dude and Dödel. The word doodle first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton. A doodle can vary from a meaningless scribble or scrawl to a detailed picture of a dog. Your history notebook might be equal parts notes and doodles. The modern meaning emerged in the 1930s either from this meaning or from the verb 'to dawdle', which since the seventeenth century has had the meaning of wasting time or being lazy. A doodle is a casual little drawing you do, often while you're doing something else, like talking on the phone or listening to a teacher's lecture. This is also the origin of the early eighteenth century verb to doodle, meaning 'to swindle or to make a fool of'. The meaning 'fool, simpleton' is intended in the song title 'Yankee Doodle', originally sung by British colonial troops prior to the American Revolutionary War.

Doodle definition