Etymology

dud

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Today it means: A device or machine that is useless because it does not work properly or has failed to work, such as a bomb, or explosive projectile. Full definition →

Middle English dudde ← Old English *dudda
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited from*dudda
  2. Middle English · inherited fromdudde“cloak, mantle, kind of cloth; ragged clothing or cloth”
  3. English todaydud

From Middle English dudde (“cloak, mantle, kind of cloth; ragged clothing or cloth”), from Old English *dudda (attested only as personal name Dudda, part of modern English Dudley), akin to Old Norse dúði (“swaddling clothes”), Low German dudel. Possibly borrowed from the Old Norse word and related to dýja (“to shake, tremble”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.