I see it as Naturism = eveything ' nature ' , natural, as it's meant to be. Nudism = the social aspect with some nature mixed in . But basically they are the same. I am a nudist ' member ' of almost 30 years at a club I call my second home

I think nudism is the belief that clothes are unnecessary. Naturism would include nudity, perhaps a throwback to paleolithic type living. A philosophy, perhaps.

Is it aubergine or eggplant?

I personally don't think there is a difference in the terms. When it comes to the supporting organizations (specifically AANR and The Naturist Society), however, those do focus differently in their scope and lobbying efforts. AANR (american association for nude recreation) is all about social nudity in resort and organized situations. TNS lobbies and promotes nude recreation on public lands and places...hiking, beaches, etc. I suspect some people use the terms nudist and naturist accordingly. I use them both.

There is a lot of overlap. Naturism is motivated more out of a "back to nature" attitude, and will often extend into environmental politics. A lot of peopel just refer to themselves as "Naturists" simply because many "swingers" wrongfully refer to themselves as "Nudists" and if you look for "Nudist" on the internet, it way too often is equated with porn.

I think of either naturism or nudism as the enjoyment of beign naked bor its own sake, and enjoyin participatign in nude recreation without any sexual motivations or agendas. Just nice" family friendly" socializing, without any gyilt fear or shame about nudity.

One of my favortie T-Shirts reads "If we were meant to be naked, we'd have been born that way." Which kid of sums up my attitude about it. Nakedness is our natural state. We are taught to feel guilt fear and shame about nudity, mostly out of religious dogmas ingrained into our cultures. I think this causes a lot of unhapp8ines in the world. To feel ashamed of one's own body can only be a sad (and pointless) thing to feel.