Naked truth

Origin of: Naked truth

Naked truth

Naked here means uncovered, stripped of all concealment and this usage of the word dates from the late 14th/ early 15th century as in a naked sword i.e. an unsheathed sword. Shakespeare is thought to have coined the phrase in Love’s Labour Lost c. 1594, Act V, Scene II, “The naked truth of it is, I have no shirt.”