Stupid Question ™
By John Ruch
© 2002
Q: What’s the origin
of the phrase “buck naked”?
—Anonymous
A: Like so much Southern black slang, this term’s origin is lost largely because of enforced illiteracy.
The first printed usage was in Julia Peterkin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1928 novel “Scarlet Sister Mary,” where it was used as part of black dialect. Peterkin was white, btu her book was regarded as accurate. And in any case, the term also seems to have circulated in Southern white slang, too, though it was considered impolite.
“Buck” could just be a corruption of the more logical “butt,” though the reverse is equally likely. The myriad definitions of “buck” provide all sorts of alternatives.
Back at least to AD 1000, “buck” meant a male animal, especially a goat or deer (the latter is of course still a common term). This might be enough; buck deer are clearly naked all the time.
Around 1800, people of European descent applied this animal term to male humans of what they considered “inferior” races, including Native Americans and blacks. Native Americans were often underdressed by white standards. Black slaves were typically poorly dressed and at times were presented nude in slave auctions. The latter case is an especially strong contender because of the phrase’s Southern origin and black usage.
“Buck” also has a sexy side. In the 1500s, as a verb, it meant “to copulate (with),” originally used with rabbits. And in the 1700s, “buck” became a term for a womanizing man. Since sex often involves nudity, of course, either term could be an influence.
Another suggestion is that it came from “buckskin.” It seems strange that leather used in clothing would become a term for nudity, but there is a precedent. “In the buff” (originally, “in buff”) came from “buff,” a buffalo-hide leather widely used in European military uniforms in the 1500s to 1700s.
To be “in buff” originally meant to be in uniform. But “buff” became a generic term for “flesh” or “skin,” and in almost a pun thus was used to refer to nudity. However, there are no known uses of “buck” as a generic term for skin.
There are
so many other meanings of “buck” that your imagination can run wild. For
example, dating to the 1500s, a “buck” was a laundry tub typically used for
bleaching. Perhaps washing oneself in such a tub inspired the term.