In his most recent monologue on The Late Show, the comedian host Stephen Colbert, gently mocked a New York Times reporter’s style of writing (watch the excerpt on YouTube)
“500 words” she whispered, her silken robe sliding to the floor as the morning sun hit her bedude form.
I think that’s how the word “bedude” is supposed to be spelled, if word it is. I looked and searched online and found nothing. It’s my guess that Colbert misspoke, and I would normally shrug it off; however, seconds later he repeated the term bedude [?], quite emphatically I may add. Saying
Even (This is getting sexy, this is kinda getting sexy. I like “bedude”). Even people at the White House don’t know what to do, there is no war room…
Mr Colbert is an educated man, a fine wit and appears to be extremely well-read, on more than one occasion he has cited poetry and literary passages by heart, so maybe I am wrong and maybe bedude is a “word”.
I have checked online but unearthed nothing of value. So, bedude could be an inside joke, a malapropism, a spoonerism for denude, it could be that I have misspelt it, or it might be none of the above.
Answer
As per a comment under the question, bedude is not a word. However, bedewed is.
From bedew:
[Merriam-Webster]
: to wet with or as if with dew
We can assume that’s the word he’s pronouncing—and presumably he’s describing the sun shining off of water droplets on her body. (Although, oddly, the YouTube closed-captioning used specifically ignores that single word—even when it’s spoken a second time.)
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Mari-Lou A , Answer Author : Jason Bassford