stark naked

Meaning

Adjective

• Completely naked

Origin

• 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 likelily due to a misinterpretation of the phrase as being a way of saying "starkly naked" ("strongly naked, harshly naked").