dub

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Dub, for “to nickname” (1600s) someone, comes from dubbing someone a knight ceremonially with a sword (1100s).

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Many other senses emerged over the centuries, including slang for “a fool” and a bad shot in golf, also called a duff.

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Dub was shortened from double in the 1920s. This dubbing is providing another soundtrack to a film, especially in a different language (e.g., a film dubbed into English), or a musical recording (overdubs).

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Musical dubbing (doubling a recording or adding tracks) supplied the name of Dub music. Dub stemmed from Jamaican reggae in the 1960s and features remixes of earlier reggae recordings. It influenced a genre of electronic dance music, dubstep, in London in the 1990s, popularized by the musician Skrillex in the 2000s.

Dub for double was slang for $20 (double ten) in the 1940s and for a $20 worth of a drug in the 2010s, as seen in some hip-hop lyrics.

Speaking of drugs, dub has named a cigarette in the 1970s and then a marijuana joint in the 1990s, perhaps as a form of doobie.

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Finally, dub can be short for the letter W, based on its pronunciation. George W. Bush went by Dubya by 2000. Later in the 20th century, dub became slang for “a win (in sports),” a stand-in for W.