Buck naked or Butt naked?

[jimmythehand]

Another UK representative here. Obviously we understand both terms but as others have already said, they're both considered americanisms and people would be more likely to say 'stark naked', 'bare naked', 'fully/completely naked' or the occassionally heard 'bollock naked'.

When I have heard either term used over here - usually by people heavily influenced by US culture in some way - it's almost always 'buck naked', possibly because we tend not abbreviate buttocks to 'butt' in British English, with other words being used for that instead.

On 'arse' vs 'ass' usage in the UK, I'd say that 'arse' is still more prevalent but that no one would correct someone for saying 'ass' and that there are an increasing number of those under 40, having grown up watching US TV shows, who have started to shift across to the US version, especially in the more multicultural southern parts of England (I've particularly noticed the shift myself in traditionally working class communities in South West England, where I've worked alot over the years).

[edithdick]

I grew up in Michigan. To my knowledge, buck naked was the ‘correct’ version while butt naked was a childish version of the phrase. My Canadian friends to the north said Stark naked, or starkers as the childish variant.

[Fred Key]

I grew up in Michigan. To my knowledge, buck naked was the ‘correct’ version while butt naked was a childish version of the phrase. My Canadian friends to the north said Stark naked, or starkers as the childish variant.

This.

[TheBlushingPrincess]

.

[underdog_13]

Okay, I've done a little research:

American Heritage Dictionary (https://www.ahdictionary.com): buck-naked
Cambridge English-Portuguese (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... ortuguese/): buck naked and butt naked
Collins English Dictionary (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/): buck naked, buck-naked, butt-naked
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com): buck naked (1913), butt naked (1968)
https://www.dictionary.com/: buck naked
Longman Dictionary (https://www.ldoceonline.com/): buck naked
MacMillan Dictionary (https://www.macmillandictionary.com): none
https://www.thesaurus.com: buck naked
Oxford Learner's Dictionary (https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com): buck naked
Oxford Dictionary of English (celular app): buck naked (North American), butt naked

And, to top it off, there's this one:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-a ... butt-naked

'Buck Naked' or 'Butt Naked'?
It's a natural question
============================================================================


What to Know
============

While both buck naked and butt naked are used to describe someone who is fully nude, buck naked is the older of the pair. Butt naked is much newer and likely sees use because of butt having a long history of referring to a person's buttocks.

From time to time our dictionary must put aside childish things, leaving off the crowd-pleasing aspects of lexicography (such as establishing the precise moment at which the past participle form of a verb completes its functional shift and may properly be described as an adjective), in order to focus on the unglamorous, but necessary, aspects of word-wrangling.

So. When describing a person in a state of utter undress, should one use buck naked or butt naked?

Origin of 'Buck Naked' vs. 'Butt Naked'
=======================================

Look into the origin of which word to put before naked and you will find more schools of thought than you would at a joint conference of Digital Humanities and American Studies. Well, not really, but there are several theories. Some think that the original was butt, based on that word having been used to refer to a person’s buttocks since the 17th century, and that buck was a euphemism. Others feel that the buck referred to buckskin (the skin of a male deer, an animal often found in a nude state), or that it came from the word’s sense meaning “a male American Indian or African-American” (this sense of buck is considered offensive).

We define both buck naked and butt naked as “completely naked,” and give each as a synonym of the other in the definition. Butt naked is considerably newer, however; our earliest evidence of it is from the late 1960s, and the word did not gain much currency until the 1970s.

If George T. Smith jumped out of a helicopter over Five Points, butt naked, you might get a little story on page 9.
— Hal Gulliver, The Atlanta Constitution, 3 Aug. 1970

Geechees are not that part of the civilian population who admire the emperor’s blue serge suit when in fact the emperor is butt-naked.
— Verta Mae Grosvenor, Redbook (New York, NY), Apr. 1973

When the Southern born mother was telling a neighbor about the incident a friend of Willie overheard the conversation which went something like this: “Girl, dat Willie is somethin’ else runnin; around the yawd butt-naked with that little gal up da street.”
— Ron Suber, Pittsburgh Courier, 24 Apr. 1976

Our earliest recorded use of buck naked comes some four decades before that of butt naked. None of the citations we have from the teens or twenties appear to support the etymological theories above.

”Well,” said the other, “it’s dis away. ‘Tother day I’m visitin’ in a house an I goes to the bath room an’ opens de door—taint locked—and dere in de tub sits a woman, buck naked.”
— Arizona Champion (Flagstaff, AZ), 19 Dec. 1919

Minnie Smith heard the commotion in the house and ran out of her room, and according to offices, buck naked.
— The Dothan Eagle (Dothan, AL), 9 Jan. 1922

I never knew a dog could shed as much hair as that dog shedded on my suit and not be left buck naked, but after that canine got up, he still seemed to have nearly as much hair on him as I had on my suit.
— The Index-Journal (Greenwood, SC), 12 Apr. 1928

Which is Right?

Both buck naked and butt naked are of an informal variety of English; you are unlikely to have cause to use either in writing for school, or most types of work. Buck is the older of the twain, but, given the linguistic register in which such words are typically found you should really just choose the one that brings you the most joy.

[PhilMarlowe]

When I was growing up, parents used the phrase 'buck naked' but it really only applied to naked males (named bucks). Now that I am older and enjoy naked females, I prefer to use 'butt naked' for them because I want their butts to be naked as often as possible.