"stark" = insane

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:12 AM -0700 7/18/07, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>On Jul 18, 2007, at 6:50 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:
>
>>OED lacks British slang "stark," adj., meaning "crazy."
>
>a clipping of "stark ravers" or "stark raving mad", involving "stark"
>'to the fullest extent or degree; absolutely, utterly,
>quite' (OED)'?  (OED has "stark raving mad", "stark staring mad", and
>"stark ravers"

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.)

LH

>
>>
>>   1930 C. R. Benstead _Retreat: A Novel of 1918_ 152: "The parson.
>>He's stark." "What, naked?" "No, you fool. Mad. Raving mad."
>
>the quotation itself suggests that both uses of "stark" are clippings.
>
>>   Used in a similarly absolute way, the sense "naked" is from the
>>18th C.
>
>arnold
>
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