[Ads-l] Heard: "bud" > _butt_

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY DEVCOM AVMC (USA)]

There was a character who appeared on both Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue, a black guy who would disrobe inappropriately.  He'd open his trenchcoat and yell "I'm Buck Naked!"  I think his character was listed with that name in the credits, even, so it was his name as opposed to his state of being (or maybe both . . .).

Anyway, his existence settled the butt/buck naked issue as far as I'm concerned.

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More “butt” imperialism, after the now standard “butt-naked”.  Both “nip in the butt” and “butt-naked” are in the eggcorn database, the latter as a “nearly standard” or “nearly mainstream” reanalysis.  (http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/369/butt/).  Some contributors insist that “butt naked” is the appropriate form, to which Arnold replied:

In response to scruss… Please notice the “nearly mainsteam” label on this one, and remember that for a very good eggcorn, the people who use it are absolutely convinced they’re right.

Less standard, but also attested, is “no butts about it”, which—unlike “butt naked” and perhaps “nip it in the butt”—is harder to rationalize. (Of course it also occurs self-consciously as a pun.)

LH



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