H.L. Mencken's invented proper word for "strip-tease artist," 1940, from Greek ekdysis "a stripping or casting off" (used scientifically in English from mid-19c. with reference to serpents shedding skin and molting birds or crustacea), from ekdyein "to put off one's clothes, take off, strip off" (contrasted with endyo "to put on"), from ek (see ex-) + dyein "enter, to dive; to plunge; get into, slip into, put on," which, according to Beekes, is "related to the rare Sanskrit verb upa-du- 'to put on' ...."
