whence BUCK NAKED?

[Baker, John]

        If the "butt naked" theory were true, then presumably "butt naked" would predate "buck naked."  Instead, "butt naked" seems to be relatively recent (Google Groups has 2/23/90), while Merriam-Webster takes "buck naked" back to 1928.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of RonButters at AOL.COM
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2004 5:17 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: whence BUCK NAKED?


The archives do not show this, so I'm wondering if we have ever discussed it.

AH4 says this probably comes from "butt naked."

Despite its commonness, OED (gasp) has no entry at all for BUCK NAKED and
NOAD (gasp again maybe) makes no speculation as to etymology.

Anything stronger than AH4's brave guess?