Naked as a jaybird
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Debby from 'Life's Funny Like That' mentioned this expression in a comment the other day and it was unfamiliar to me, so, being incurably nosy, I looked it up. It is an American idiom, first recorded in 1843, but growing in popularity from the 1920s.
It replaced the earlier saying, ‘naked as a robin,’ perhaps because it seemed a more robust phrase. Some have suggested that the original idiom was ‘naked as a fledgling robin/jaybird,’ since such baby birds are naked on hatching, but this was dismissed by others who claim that the word ‘fledgling’ was never part of the expression.
Why was the saying never ‘naked as a jay’ or even ‘naked as a blue jay,’ which has a nice ring to it?
‘Naked as a jaybird’ can be used to refer to ‘jailbirds,’ or prisoners who were stripped and disinfected before being issued with prison garb. ‘Jailbird’ has been in use since the seventeenth century in England, conjuring rather fanciful images of miscreants as birds in iron cages, or gaols. Gaol was a standard English spelling until the middle of the twentieth century, but is rarely used now.
Something else I read suggested that the expression arose because young jay nestlings, before their feathers have grown, often push their siblings out of the nest, when they are naked.
In short, I’m almost as mystified as I was before I started looking at this idiom. Of course, it is shameful to be caught naked in public, unless you’re staying in a nudist colony or disporting yourself on a nudist beach.
Is a nudist beach one that doesn’t wear clothes? What is the well-dressed beach wearing this year?
I imagine a well-dressed beach has plenty of clean sand, no scummy tide marks and prettier shells than a "nude" beach who probably doesn't care what she looks like. We have a nudist beach here in Adelaide but the nudity is optional I've heard. I won't be going there.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I have heard the term "naked as a newborn" but not often, and mostly said by older women in their 80s-90s.
ReplyDeleteI heard this term often when I was growing up in the South. It was used to refer to any number of different things. Blue Jays always nested in our yard and so I sometimes saw the actual naked jaybirds.
ReplyDeleteNow I am not sure what variation I have heard.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine men named Robin objected
ReplyDeleteWell now...you even have this Americana puzzled. "Naked as a jaybird" is a very common and oft-used expression in these parts but never, ever, have I heard "naked as a robin," and, truth be told, I find the latter somewhat offensive LOL. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI think I've heard some of that but here in Hawaii we had different terms when I was growing up which were Hawaiian pidgin.
ReplyDeleteThe explanation making most sense to me is that the expression originally was "jailbird" but got passed on as "jaybird" because of mishearing/mispronouncing/misunderstanding.
ReplyDelete