naked

naked (adj.) O.E. nacod "nude, bare; empty," also "not fully clothed," from P.Gmc. *nakwathaz (Cf. O.Fris. nakad, M.Du. naket, Du. naakt, O.H.G. nackot, Ger. nackt, O.N. nökkviðr, O.Swed. nakuþer, Goth. naqaþs "naked"), from PIE root *nogw- "naked" (Cf. Skt. nagna, Hittite nekumant-, O.Pers. *nagna-, Gk. gymnos, L. nudus, Lith. nuogas, O.C.S. nagu-, Rus. nagoi, O.Ir. nocht, Welsh noeth "bare, naked"). Related: Nakedly; nakedness. Applied to qualities, actions, etc., from late 14c. (first in "The Cloud of Unknowing"); phrase naked truth is from 1585, in Alexander Montgomerie's "The Cherry and the Slae":

Which thou must (though it grieve thee) grant

I trumped never a man.

But truely told the naked trueth,

To men that meld with mee,

For neither rigour, nor for rueth,

But onely loath to lie.

[Montgomerie, 1585]

Phrase naked as a jaybird (1943) was earlier naked as a robin (1879, in a Shropshire context); the earliest known comparative based on it was naked as a needle (late 14c.). Naked eye is from 1660s, unnecessary in the world before telescopes and microscopes.