naked
Without clothes; having no covering, protection, or concealment.
Etymology
From Old English nacod, from Proto-Germanic *nakwadaz, from PIE *nogʷ- "naked, bare." The word is remarkably well preserved across Indo-European languages, nearly unchanged in form and meaning for millennia. Latin nūdus "bare" descends from the same root.
The Journey: *nogʷ- → naked
*nogʷ-
*nakwadaz
nacod
naked
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *nogʷ-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | gymnós |
| Latin | nūdus |
| Gothic | naqaþs |
| Russian | nagój |
| Sanskrit | nagná- |
| Old Irish | nocht |
| Lithuanian | núogas |
Did You Know?
Latin nūdus gave English "nude" — so "naked" (Germanic) and "nude" (Latin) are doublets from the same PIE root *nogʷ-. Greek gymnós "naked" (from a different root) gave "gymnasium" — Greeks exercised naked.
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *nogʷ-. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.