Terminology

Terminology

Although "nude," "naked," "bare," "stripped," "unclothed," and other terms have the same objective meaning (i.e., not covered by clothing), they have differing subjective connotations, which partly match their differing etymologies. "Nude" originally had a meaning of "plain, bare, unadorned" in a broader sense when introduced into English from Latin nudus, originally only as a legal term meaning "unsupported by proof", since 1531; later used an artistic euphemism for physical nakedness in 1631. Meanwhile "bare" and "naked" derive from the common Old English words, with many cognates, for "uncovered". Some consider one term more appropriate than the other. The book Nude, Naked, Stripped suggests that these three terms define a continuum ranging from artistic or tasteful absence of clothing by choice, at one end, to a forced or mandatory condition of being without clothes (e.g., a strip search), at the other. In general, a "nude" person is unclad by choice and is generally shameless; a "naked" person is involuntarily caught undressed and is generally embarrassed.

Various synonyms refer specifically — often as a negative — to the absence or rather removal of clothing, such as denuded, divested, peeled, stripped, unclad, unclothed, uncovered, undressed and dis- or un-robed.

Another euphemism for the embarrassing state of nakedness is "exposed", to glances no less than to the elements; not only the expression "to show skin" refers to nudity in terms of the dermis, in Manx Gaelic jiarg-rooisht and Scottish Gaelic dearg rùisgte, translated as "stark naked", is literally 'red' naked, as such exposure may make one 'blush'.