stark naked

English

Etymology

Middle English stert naked (steort nakt, sternaked, star naked); the first element is from Old English steort (“tail”). The change from "start-naked" to "stark-naked" was most likely by folk etymology due to a misinterpretation of the phrase as being a way of saying "starkly naked" ("strongly naked, harshly naked").

Adjective

stark naked (not comparable)

1. Completely naked.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:nude

Translations

completely naked

• Bulgarian: чисто гол (čisto gol)
• Catalan: conill (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 赤裸裸 (zh) (chìluǒluǒ), 全裸 (zh) (quánluǒ)

• Faroese: spilnakin, blóðnakin, heilt nakin
• Finnish: ilkosillaan (fi), ilkosen alasti (fi), ilkialasti
• French: à poil (fr)
• German: splitternackt (de), splitterfasernackt (de), fasernackt
• Irish: tarnocht
• Japanese: 真っ裸 (まっぱだか, mappadaka), 素っ裸 (ja) (すっぱだか, suppadaka), 全裸 (ja) (ぜんら, zenra)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: чармаа нүцгэн (čarmaa nücgen), чармаа шалдан (čarmaa šaldan)

  Mongolian: ᠴᠢᠷᠠᠮ᠎ᠠ
  ᠨᠢᠴᠦᢉᠦᠨ (čiram-a ničüᢉün), ᠴᠢᠷᠠᠮ᠎ᠠ
  ᠱᠠᠯᠳᠠᠩ (čiram-a šaldaŋ)

• Romanian: gol nap, gol pușcă, gol ca degetul
• Spanish: en pelotas (es)
• Swedish: spritt språngande naken
• Welsh: noethlymun (cy)

Noun

stark naked (uncountable)

1. (slang, archaic) Raw gin.

   Synonym: strip me naked

   • 1870, Langford Cecil, Fenacre Grange, page 15:

     "Give us a glass of 'stark naked,' Job! This plaguey fog's well nigh choked me," said Rube, spluttering and coughing, and vituperating it.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary