birthday suit

English

Alternative forms

• birthday-suit

Etymology

From the lack of clothes worn when one is born.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

birthday suit (plural birthday suits)

1. (idiomatic, often humorous) Nakedness, unclothed skin; an exposure of a human's natural anatomy without clothing.

   George embarrassed his aunt by answering the door in his birthday suit.

   • 1842, H., “Short Rides in an Author's Omnibus”, in Thomas Hood, editor, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, page 267:

     Nature, the universal tailor, provides for every other animal a birthday suit of clothes which is to outlast his life; but man, though so peculiarly sensitive to the assaults of the elements, is ushered into this nether sphere without any covering, in order that he may be compelled to exert his faculties, and become his own tailor, and thereby his own civilizer.

   • 1998, Paul Vaughn, “Confessions of a Naked Writer”, in Orange Coast, page 185:

     At last I'm down to the nitty-gritty, my original birthday suit. Where do I put my hands? I need pockets.

   • 2000, Denis Charles Phillips, The Expanded Social Scientist's Bestiary: A Guide to Fabled Threats to, and Defenses of, Naturalistic Social Science, page 85:

     The terms naturalistic and naturalism suffer from the fact that they have a range of meanings, covering a variety of things from the Romantic submission to nature or the collecting of butterflies to the practice of bathing on the beach clad only in one's birthday suit.

   • 2001, Tom Slattery, Immodest Proposals: Through the Pornographic Looking Glass, page 181:

     A person suddenly caught naked by the collapse of a building wall is treated quite differently than a person who intentionally “streaks” a public gathering in his or her birthday suit.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see birthday,‎ suit.

Usage notes

• Usually used in the phrase “in one’s birthday suit”, but sometimes seen alone; for example, as in “Guess what she was wearing? Her birthday suit!”

Derived terms

• birthday-suited

Translations

nakedness

• Catalan: vestit d'Adam m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 一絲不掛／一丝不挂 (zh) (yīsībùguà), 赤條條地／赤条条地 (zh) (chìtiáotiáo de) (stark naked), 赤身裸体

• Danish: adamskostume n (used of men), evakostume n (used of women)
• Dutch: adamskostuum (nl) n, evakostuum n, paradijskostuum n
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: syntymäasu, aataminasu, aataminpuku
• French: tenue d’Adam (fr) f, tenue d’Ève (fr) f, dans le plus simple appareil (fr), dans son plus simple appareil
• German: Adamskostüm (de) n (literally “Adam's costume”) (chiefly of males), Evakostüm n (only of females), wie Gott ihn/sie schuf (literally “as God created them”)
• Greek: αδαμιαία περιβολή (el) f (adamiaía perivolí)
• Hebrew: עָרֹם כִּבְיוֹם הִוָּלְדוֹ (he) m ('aróm kivyóm hivaldó), בִּלְבוּשׁ חַוָּה (bilvúsh ḥavá) (lit.: in Eve's clothes)
• Hungarian: ádámkosztüm (hu)
• Japanese: 素っ裸 (ja) (すっぱだか, suppadaka)
• Korean: 나체 (ko) (nache)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: Adomo kostiumas m (used of men), Ievos kostiumas m (used of women)
• Malay: bogel (ms), telanjang
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Adams drakt (no) (used of men), Evas drakt (used of women)

  Nynorsk: Adams drakt (no) (used of men), Evas drakt (used of women)

• Persian: لخت مادرزاد (loxt-e mâdarzâd)
• Polish: strój Adama m
• Portuguese: in one’s birthday suit: como veio ao mundo (pt)
• Romanian: costumul lui Adam n
• Russian: костю́м Ада́ма m (kostjúm Adáma) (used of men), костю́м Е́вы (ru) m (kostjúm Jévy) (used of women), to be in one’s birthday suit: в чём мать родила́ (v čom matʹ rodilá) (lit.: like when born by mother)
• Spanish: to be in one’s birthday suit: estar como su madre le trajo al mundo
• Swedish: adamsdräkt (sv) c
• Thai: ชุดวันเกิด

See also

• naked as the day one was born