'Stark' meant 'strong' in Old English — German still uses it that way. English shifted it to 'harsh, bare.'
Severe or bare in appearance or outline; sharply clear; complete, total (as in 'stark naked').
From Old English 'stearc' (stiff, strong, rigid, hard), from Proto-Germanic '*starkwaz' (stiff, strong), from PIE *ster- (stiff, rigid). The original meaning was 'stiff, rigid, firm' — both physically and metaphorically. The sense shifted from 'strong, firm' to 'harsh, severe, bare' (a stark landscape is one stripped to its rigid
In German, 'stark' still means 'strong' — its original meaning. English shifted the word from 'strong' to 'harsh and bare,' while German kept it positive. 'Stark naked' is actually a corruption of 'start naked,' where 'start' meant 'tail' (from Old English 'steort') — naked down to your tail, i.e., completely naked. The phrase was