Exuberance! It’s a perfect word for describing naturism. Do you know the bodily origin of this joyful word?
“Exuberance” comes from the verb “exuberate,” which meant to abound, to overflow, to make fruitful or fertile. The Indo-European root, according to my good old American Heritage Dictionary, is eu@-dh-r, and the only modern word derived from it, other than “exuberance,” is “udder.”
This makes pefect sense. In other words, it’s about breasts. That’s right: exuberant boobies. ¡( . ) ( . )!
The Latin term über meant “breast” (possibly the source of the German über for “over” or “on top”). So an approximate literal meaning for “exuberance” would be something like “showing the breasts” or “exposing the chest” which is a swell idea to pair with the first definition for “exuberance” given in the AHD: “full of unrestrained enthusiasm or joy.”
For naturists, showing our joy and enthusiasm–showing our emotion and energy and creativity–is indeed synonymous with showing our breasts, and of course not just our chests but also our navels, our soles, our backs, our hair, our buttocks, our ears, our elbows, our genitals, our shoulders, our thighs, & etc. & etc. & etc.
A naturist is not always necessarily exuberant while nude (although it’s difficult not to be!), but in general, and certainly in contrast to mainstream textile society, YES: Naturism in and of itself can certainly be defined as EXUBERANCE! Who doesn’t feel a giddy rush, a heart-leaping exhilaration, when shedding all clothes to run across the meadow or parking lot, to jump into the pool or pond?
Naturists know from experience that this inevitable exuberance absolutely positively trumps and stomps and whomps any semblance of that sorry-excuse-for-morality-or-is-it-marketing called shame. And this is why we have to help our textile friends and loved ones understand that to experience true joy–full-on, overflowing, over-the-top exuberance–you gotta show some skin!
nudescribe 