Clothingless

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. The condition of being without any garments or outfits
2. An absence of wearable fabric items commonly used for coverage
3. Not wearing any garments or apparel on the body

Etymology: "Clothingless" is a plain formation: the noun "clothing" with the suffix "-less," which means "without" and is attached to nouns to form adjectives, as in "hopeless" or "careless." Put together, the word describes someone or something without clothing, and it follows the same pattern as older English coinages built from a noun and "-less." The suffix itself is old. "-less" descends from the Old English "-leas," an adjective meaning "free from" or "lacking," which was also used as a standalone word. The "clothing" half is the more recent piece: it comes from "clothe," with the "-ing" ending that turns a verb into a noun for the material of clothes, so "clothing" originally referred to the act of dressing before settling on garments.

Synonyms: nude, bare

Antonyms: clothed