8/20/09


3 Comments

  1. I always thought it was the other way round- buck naked being a mishearing of butt naked.

    I think butt naked makes more sense because, well, if you’re naked, people can see your butt.

  2. Near as I can tell, both are pretty well-established and the etymology for either is nebulous. I’ve always heard the expression as “buck naked” and viewed “butt naked” as a ‘mis-hearing’ of the original phrase (see also “pompitous of love” and “could care less”) or a corruption. However, this could easily be attributed to regional variations. Who knows? I still prefer “buck naked”, probably because of its similarity to “buck wild.”

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