buck » butt
Spotted in the wild:
- “I was butt naked doing push-ups, trying to keep warm,” said Joshua Fuller, 23, of Saginaw Township, who was held in isolation in 2000. (The Detroit Free Press: May 11, 2005)
- They’d do well to turn down the throbbing house music–it’s not exactly soothing when you’re butt naked and drenched with brown gunk. (The Chicago Tribune: September 27, 2004)
- In a locker room filled with butt-naked, macho jocks… (The Somerville News: May 11, 2005)
- To be certain, as a toddler suffering from measles, I used to march “butt-naked,” as New Yorkers would say, behind some of the street-parades organized by the Young Pioneers. (GhanaWeb.com: May 12, 2005)
Washington State University’s Common Errors in English “PC”izes the transformation:
The standard expression is “buck naked,” and the contemporary “butt naked” is an error that will get you laughed at in some circles. However, it might be just as well if the new form were to triumph. Originally a “buck” was a dandy, a pretentious, overdressed show-off of a man. Condescendingly applied in the U.S. to Native Americans and black slaves, it quickly acquired negative connotations. To the historically aware speaker, “buck naked” conjures up stereotypical images of naked “savages” or—worse—slaves laboring naked on plantations. Consider using the alternative expression “stark naked.”
That is not to say that there was any PC motivation in what I’d think was simply misperception of the original phrase.
The fourth citation brings up the question of regionality. The author is on staff at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, where he teaches English and Journalism.
1
Commentary by scruss , 2005/05/24 at 2:55 am
I’d say that “butt naked” is a valid variant, and hardly qualifies as an error.
2
Commentary by Arnold Zwicky , 2005/05/24 at 5:22 am
In response to scruss… Please notice the “nearly mainsteam” label on this one, and remember that for a very good eggcorn, the people who use it are absolutely convinced they’re right.
The fact that something might have started as an error says nothing about where it ends up.
3
Commentary by Q. Pheevr , 2005/05/24 at 3:32 pm
Related Language Log posts:
Bu?? naked
New intensifiers
Butt to buck, start to stark, or vice versa?
4
Commentary by Karen , 2005/06/25 at 1:51 am
That’s funny. I thought the expression WAS butt naked.
5
Commentary by scruss , 2005/08/22 at 7:55 pm
Yes, Arnold, but usage defines language. All the lexicographers I’ve worked with spend most of their time tracking how meanings change.
6
Commentary by Jerry Friedman , 2006/02/15 at 11:38 pm
Is there any chance that “buck naked” started as an error for “butt naked”? After all, “stark naked” comes from “start naked”, that is, “tail-naked”. (This “start” otherwise survives only in “redstart”, any of various birds with red tails.)
7
Commentary by Jim Murphy , 2006/06/20 at 10:12 pm
This was common usage among my (perhaps less well-read) childhood friends in southern Ohio over fifty years ago.
8
Commentary by Christine Kamprath , 2006/09/29 at 12:43 am
On “butt” as an intensifier: “butt ugly” is fairly common, but around 1995 I heard this sentence: “One thing I like about you is that you’ve always been butt honest with me.”
9
Commentary by Christine Kamprath , 2006/09/29 at 12:46 am
On “butt” as an intensifier: “butt ugly” is fairly common, but around 1995 I heard this sentence: “One thing I like about you is that you’ve always been butt honest with me.”