The story
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*nogʷ-“to make naked”
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*nakwōną“to make naked”
- Old English · inherited fromnacian“to bare, strip, make naked”
- Middle English · inherited fromnaken“to nake”
- English todaynake
From Middle English naken (“to nake”), from Old English nacian (“to bare, strip, make naked”), from Proto-Germanic *nakwōną (“to make naked”), from Proto-Indo-European *nogʷ- (“to make naked”). Cognate with Old Norse nǫkkva (“to bare, expose”). More at naked.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.