Dictionary

beatnik en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈbiːtnɪk/

Etymology

Coined by American columnist Herb Caen in 1958. From beat (generation) + -nik (“person who exemplifies or endorses something”). Compare jazznik. The suffix, a cutesy or ironic use of the Russian suffix -ник (-nik), experienced a surge of use in English coinages for nicknames and diminutives after the 1957 Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite.

Meanings

1. A person who dresses in a manner that is not socially acceptable and is supposed to reject conventional norms of thought and behavior; nonconformist in dress and behavior.
   • The drive against the stilyagi has hampered but not destroyed the development of (Soviet-style) “beatniki” among the younger artistic and literary intelligentsia. […] The tendency of Soviet “beatniki” is to emulate what they consider the Left-Bank bohemianism of Paris. It is a faint whisper of a similar movement among young East European intellectuals, particularly in Poland, to make ultrasophistication their mark of separateness from “proletarian” society. 1963, George Sherman, “Soviet Youth: Myth and Reality”, in Erik H[omburger] Erikson, editor, The Challenge of Youth (Doubleday Anchor Books; A438), Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, published 1965, →ISBN, page 318:
2. A person associated with the Beat Generation of the 1950s and 1960s or its style.
   • The Beatles first surfaced in the USSR in 1964, when the style of dress of the ‘Beatniki’ was enthusiastically copied. 2003 May 25, Nick Paton Walsh, “Macca’s back in the USSR – a few years late”, in The Observer, number 11,041, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Aug 2013, page 21, column 5:
   • In tight black jeans and black polo-neck sweater he reminded her of an old-fashioned beatnik. 2014, Ian McEwan, The Children Act, Penguin Random House (2018), page 185:
   • Worrying news from the west upset Soviet authorities even further. Punk rock was already causing trouble in Poland and other east-European countries. Did someone in the administration fear a repetition of Beatlemania, with decent, twist-dancing beatniki being replaced by pogo-dancing, sneering and gobbing impersonators of Johnny Rotten? 2004, Yngvar Bordewich Steinholt, “The twists and turns of popular music policies”, in Rock in the Reservation: Songs from the Leningrad Rock Club 1981-86, New York, N.Y.: Mass Media Music Scholars’ Press, published 2005, →ISBN, chapter 3 (Before the Rock Club: A historical survey), section 4 (The 1970s), page 31:

Forms

Deriveds

Bootnik · beatnikery · wordnik · jazznik · peacenik · beatnikism · beatnikish

Relateds

hippie · hepcat · Baghdad by the Bay · fringie · hippy

Synonyms

beat

Translations (20)

he ביטניק (beatnik) · et biitnik (beatnik) · pl beatnik (beatnik) · fr beatnik (beatnik) · yi ביטניק (beatnik) · ru би́тник (beatnik) · de Beatnik (beatnik) · ko 비트족 (beatnik) · ja ビートニク (beatnik) · fi beatnik (beatnik) · sv beatnik (beatnik) · be бі́тнік (beatnik) · pl bitnik (beatnik) · ko 비트닉 (beatnik) · pt beatnik (beatnik) · no beatnik (beatnik) · uk бі́тник (beatnik) · cs beatník (beatnik) · mk битник (beatnik) · es beatnik (beatnik)

wikipedia: San Francisco Chronicle · wikipedia: Sputnik program