Etymologically
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nudity

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 21:00. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈnjudɪˌti/[1]
  • US: /ˈnudɪti/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French nudité (“nakedness”) and directly borrowed from Late Latin nūditās (“nakedness”),[2][3][4][5] from Latin nūdus (“naked, bare”) and the suffix -tās,[2][3] the source of nude.[6][5] The French word is recorded from the mid-14th century, and the Latin from the Vulgate;[2] the OED compares Italian nudità.[2] Etymonline traces the Latin adjective to Proto-Indo-European *nogw- (“naked”), the root of naked,[6] and also allows that the English noun may have been formed from the adjective nude with -ity.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being naked: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.[6]

Semantic evolution

Thomas Blount's Glossographia (1656) extended it to poverty, lack or bareness.[2] From 1662, in John Evelyn's Sculptura, a nudity was a nude figure in painting or sculpture,[2] and since 1677, in Wycherley, the plural meant the parts of the body usually covered, when exposed; both senses followed French uses and are now rare.[2][7] Johnson (1755) gave only "naked parts", with Dryden's "obscene nudities" in painting.[8] Etymonline notes that the adjective nude, used of the body, is implied by nudity from the 1610s but was not common until the mid-19th century.[6]

Timeline

  • 1611 – nakedness, in Cotgrave.[2]
  • 1656 – poverty, bareness, in Blount.[2]
  • 1662 – a nude figure in art, in Evelyn.[2]
  • 1677 – in the plural, parts of the body exposed to view.[2]
  • 1755 – Johnson defines it as "naked parts".[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The state of being naked: The film carries a warning for brief nudity.[7][3][2]
  2. (rare) A nude figure, especially in a painting or sculpture.[7][3][2]
  3. (rare) In the plural, the parts of the body usually covered, when exposed.[2][8]

Word family

  • seminudity

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.