Naked

[Dymn]

Why is the e in "naked" pronounced? Although it looks like a past participle it doesn't seem to come from the (rare) verb "to nake", at least not if we don't go back to Proto-Germanic.

Is the -ed in naked etymologically a participial suffix? If not, does that explain the fact the e is pronounced?

Thank you

 

[Rocko!]

Maybe n'a'kl (no a cloth)
Ok... no. Sorry.

 

[Assiduous student]

It's from Old English nacod and is not a past participle.

 

[Ben Jamin]

From Etymonline:
Old English nacod "nude, unclothed, bare; empty," also "not fully clothed" (a sense still used in 18c.), from Proto-Germanic *nakwadaz (source also of Old Frisian nakad, Middle Dutch naket, Dutch naakt, Old High German nackot, German nackt, Old Norse nökkviðr, Old Swedish nakuþer, Gothic naqaþs "naked"), from PIE root *nogw- "naked" (source also of Sanskrit nagna, Hittite nekumant-, Old Persian *nagna-, Greek gymnos, Latin nudus, Lithuanian nuogas, Old Church Slavonic nagu-, Russian nagoi, Old Irish nocht, Welsh noeth "bare, naked").