"stark" = insane

Jim Parish jparish at SIUE.EDU
Wed Jul 18 15:10:42 UTC 2007


Laurence Horn wrote:
> The OED also has "starkers", for either 'stark naked' or 'stark
> raving mad'.  I think I've come upon this in Bridget Jones or a
> similar place, definitely British.  (I no longer remember which of
> these senses was intended.)

I recall seeing "starkers" in the sense of 'stark naked' in an issue of
_Fantastic Four_, put in the mouth of the Human Torch's then-girlfriend Frankie
(?) Raye, a New Yorker; this would have been in the late '70s or early '80s.

Jim Parish
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