beatnik
beatnik Lexical Profile
beatnik Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A young person in the 1950s and early 1960s belonging to a subculture associated with the Beat Generation that rejected conventional social norms in favor of artistic self-expression and bohemian living.
"The neighborhood coffeehouse became a popular gathering spot for local beatniks who spent their evenings reading poetry and listening to jazz."
Word Nuance & Usage
Originally coined as a somewhat derisive media label to distinguish commercialized imitators from the core writers of the Beat Generation, though it quickly entered general use for any member of the late-1950s bohemian counterculture.
• Rhymes for beatnik
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in 1958 by San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen, blending 'Beat' (from the Beat Generation) with the Yiddish and Russian agentive suffix '-nik', directly inspired by the recent launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik.