(no subject)

[muck_a_luck]

So, all you peoples out there.

I see people write "butt naked" all the time.

Now, I have always thought it was "buck naked," and frankly thought all those butt naked people just didn't know what they were writing. Just now, for the first time in ages, I saw someone write it right. I note here that this person is from my region of the United States.

So is this a regional thing or am I right and they're wrong?

[Poll #1421456]

Comments

[farothiel.livejournal.com]

Because I have to look stuff up...Cassell's dictionary of slang lists 'butt naked' as slang for the drug phencyclidine, or PCP. Adds a whole new twist to whatever you've been reading... *g*

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

Drug culture. *shakes head* What dumb thing will you say next? :D

[farothiel.livejournal.com]

The 'buck' of buck naked is (allegedly) a corruption of 'butt', though why that got corrupted flummoxes me: surely the nekkid came before the phencycwotsit?!?!

Not that I find anything particularly wrong with corrupting butts, you understand...

[writinginct.livejournal.com]

I've always said "buck naked"

And fyi, here's an interesting link http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/butt.html

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

OK. I have an issue with this, mostly because I don't think this phrase actually *had* that source. Southerners apply the term universally to everyone, black, white, male and female, without any racist connotation that I have ever discerned. I blinked in surprise when the suggestion was just made to me by someone else. I realize term usage does not necessarily reflect term source, but in this case, my gut feeling is that any white guilt over the use of this term is completely misplaced. If you say a white woman is buck naked, nobody gets any specially nasty message from that. It is a colorful, but relatively neutral way to emphatically say she doesn't have a stitch of clothes on.

[writinginct.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think this link http://www.takeourword.com/TOW155/page2.html goes into it in much better detail.

I've never personally associated the term "buck naked" with either slavery or Native Americans, although I can see how others might.

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

Interesting that buck might be a euphemism like heck. *is amused*

[lavenderlocks.livejournal.com]

This is my thinking too - butt being a mild (IMO) profanity; it's more usual (so I understand) for Americans (in general) to replace profane words / blasphemy with other phrases - an example would be 'gosh darn it'.

Butt naked is used where I'm from in England, more common here is stark (bollock - very profane!) naked.

[(Anonymous)]

I first knew the phrase as buck naked. It was only later that I learned the companion phrase butt naked. I'll use either phrase now, but am partial to the one I'm most familiar with - buck naked.

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

I've seen it both ways and would accept both without thinking if I read it.

[dock-leaf.livejournal.com]

Half Elf Lost once sent me a card asking this very same question and I give you the same answer as I gave her: who cares as long as there's NAKED!

I always thought it was buck naked, but I'm English and prone to lean towards things with stags and horns and stuff...

[uisgich.livejournal.com]

Buck. I always thought it had something to do with stags, although not sure what ....

[starting-gate.livejournal.com]

Buck naked is older http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/01/is-it-buck-naked-or-butt-naked.html I always thought it originated in reference to a stag deer.

"Butt naked" seems like an oxymoron, as in one's butt is usually covered. I'd never even heard the term until fanfic, right along with "infact" and "for all "intense purposes." :)

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

Shuttered instead of shuddered. My very favorite one. *points and laughs*

[writinginct.livejournal.com]

Irregardless. <-- this makes me want to SCREAM when otherwise intelligent people use it over and over and over again in the course of a conversation. I remember my English teachers gigging people left and right for using it.

[(Anonymous)]

Irregardless. <-- this makes me want to SCREAM

Yes to this! Also, if I'm making dinner and I pull something out of my freezer I am NOT going to "unthaw" it to make it room temperature. GAH!!!

[lilyleia78]

I'm from Missouri - St. louis - and I've always said 'buck naked'

[emeraldsword.livejournal.com]

I agree with other commenters who have said 'I always thought it was 'buck naked' until I saw 'butt naked' in fanfic...

[tejas.livejournal.com]

The origin is somewhat unclear. There are citations of "buck naked" usage in the 19th century, but it's possible "buck" was being used as a euphemism for "butt". Another, less savory, possibility is a reference to Native Americans and black slaves of the period who were often less fully clothed than European settlers and their decedents. "Butt naked" has, apparently, been creeping into usage in the last fifty years or so, but I'd never seen it prior to the net.

A Southerner's take on this...

[ripperspet.livejournal.com]

Y'all know I'm from the South and I've always heard the phrase used as "buck naked" (or rather, "buck nekkid" *grin*). Don't know about it's origins, but the other one, "butt naked"? Doesn't seem to make much sense... (Not that "buck naked" does, either... hm?)
Oh well, there's my two cents worth. If it's even worth that. *g*

Just to clarify... the 'editor' says...

[ripperspet.livejournal.com]

I asked my stepfather, who was the copy editor for the newspaper (several different major cities), about this. In other words, it was his job to make sure the correct phrase was used and to know what it meant...
He says that the correct phrase is "buck naked" and that the origin of the phrase goes back to early Americana. It was used in reference to Native American males, who generally wore less clothing than the white settlers were used to seeing. Thus, the term "buck naked" was coined...
I always believe what 'the editor' tells me... he's never wrong. Just FYI, in case anyone was still curious.