The Word is... NAKEY

The other day we were reviewing various websites that sent the Bare Platypus traffic over the week.  (We're grateful for the many that do.)  A less familiar website came to our attention http://www.topsy.com . 

The site is a search engine that specializes in capturing social media like blog postings and Twitter tweets. So we did some test searches for the usual: "nudist"  "nudists" "naked," etc. to see how often folks post on those subjects.  There were quite a few posts... so many that we couldn't read them all. But when they used the word nudist it was often in phrases like the familiar "I bet being a nudist takes all the fun out of Halloween" (for which they couldn't be more wrong), or "I hate doing laundry, going to become a nudist." In other words, often without necessarily expressing a genuine interest in nudism.

There were exceptions, of course.  Plus, you had to be sure to select the "30 days" or "all time" boxes next to search results to see more selections.  Now, as to the title of today's blog post:

When we ran the word "nakey" on a whim we could not believe how many Twitter tweets and short posts that people had made using that word.  It may have dwarfed the search results for "nudist."  And the posters who used it seemed to be much more on point, e.g. "It's hot weather.  Going to sleep nakey."  Or, "My roommates are gone this weekend, now I can go around nakey!"

It would probably take a sociologist to explain the transition to common usage of this word, but we'll offer our theory: The Rugrats animated television show.  It was widely aired years ago and watched by many of the people who most post and use smart phones and other social media now.  And who could forget the episode Naked Tommy in which Tommy Pickles doffs his diaper to announce, "Nakey is free!  Nakey is... nakey!"  Truth be told, we found young Mr. Pickles' inspiring quote a number of times within the Topsy.com archives.

So we've got a word to use more often when reaching a certain generation.  It's descriptive and conveys a certain amount of youthful innocence.  It's the word of the day.