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Topic: Naked

With Nude Recreation Week now underway—you've got til July 15th to strip down and have fun au naturel—we decided to take a look at three barenaked terms in our lexicon.

Naked itself has a number of nuances. It may suggest "a primitive or natural condition," "rare and complete beauty," "pitiful destitution," or "wanton and shameless exhibitionism": the naked that caught our eye is the plain one that indicates "a complete lack of clothing."

But let's dress things up a bit by beginning with stark-naked, a term which started out as start-naked. No, that wasn't created as a reference to idyllic Eden, where Adam and Eve started out naked; the initial start originated in the start or stert meaning "tail." Start-naked was influenced by the stark meaning "wholly; absolutely; quite," and now stark-naked is more commonly seen than start-naked.

What about buck-naked? The noun buck has a variety of meanings, ranging from "a male animal" to "a sawhorse" to "a dollar" to "a token used as a mark or reminder," but understanding buck stops short when it comes to buck-naked. Etymologists are at a loss to explain just how buck naked came to mean "wholly, completely, stark-naked."

Finally, there's mother-naked, whose birth is easy to understand. To be mother-naked is to be "stark naked," or "naked as at birth."

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CDs including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

Did u now that in the antient olympics that the men had to play the games nude!

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Hi wats up nice word for the wise