Skyclad

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈskaɪ.klæd/

Definitions

1. Wearing no clothes at all; nude or naked
2. Dressed without any garments or covering, fully exposed to view
3. Having no clothing on one's body, completely bare-skinned

Etymology: "Skyclad" is a nearly literal translation of a Sanskrit term. In Sanskrit, "digambara" describes an ascetic who has the ten quarters of the globe, the directions of space, as his only clothing, which is to say he is naked. English speakers borrowed the idea in the form of a compound: "sky" plus "clad," meaning clothed in the sky. The word is attested from the early twentieth century in England, and it is only partly a calque, since the English pieces are native while the underlying image comes from the Indian source. The word's usage has stayed closely tied to its origin. It describes a state of bare skin, often in a context of spiritual or ascetic practice, where the nakedness is deliberate rather than accidental. The English compound makes the same claim as its Sanskrit model: the body needs no garment because the sky itself covers it.

Synonyms: nude, bare, unclothed, undraped, au naturel

Antonyms: clothed, dressed, covered, garbed, attired