stark naked

English

Etymology

From 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"). The opposite change has shifted buck naked to butt naked in colloquial modern English.

Adjective

stark naked (not comparable)

Completely naked.

Synonyms

See Thesaurus:nude

Translations

completely naked — see also 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
Indonesian: telanjang bulat (id)
Irish: tarnocht
Japanese: 真っ裸 (ja) (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 script: ᠴᠢᠷᠠᠮ᠎ᠠ
ᠨᠢᠴᠦᢉᠦᠨ, ᠴᠢᠷᠠᠮ᠎ᠠ
ᠱᠠᠯᠳᠠᠩ (čiram-a šaldang)
Portuguese: à pai Adão (pt)
Romanian: gol nap, gol pușcă, gol ca degetul
Spanish: en pelotas (es), en cueros vivos, en bolas (es)
Swedish: spritt språngande naken
Welsh: noethlymun (cy)

Noun

stark naked (uncountable)

(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