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starkers

The origin and history of starkers.

Etymology

In the sense “naked”: British slang from 1923 that blends, as a popular etymology, two senses of stark (“strong, utterly; barren”) with stark naked, which goes back to Old English steort (“tail”), referring to the tail-end (as in butt-naked). In the sense “crazy”: stark (“shortening of stark raving mad”) plus -ers.

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