beatnik

[beet-nik]

noun

1. (sometimes initial capital letter),  a member of the Beat Generation.

2. a person who rejects or avoids conventional behavior, dress, etc.

beatnik

/ ˈbiːtnɪk /

noun

1. a member of the Beat Generation (sense 1)

2. informal,  any person with long hair and shabby clothes

Word History and Origins

Origin of beatnik¹

1955–60, beat (adj.) (as in Beat Generation ) + -nik

Word History and Origins

Origin of beatnik¹

C20: from _beat (n) + _-nik , by analogy with _Sputnik

Example Sentences

He’s put off by Ginsberg’s aggressiveness, though the aging beatnik softens somewhat when he realizes Hujar isn’t an emissary of the enemy so much as a photographer picking up work where he can get it.

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How could this crazy beatnik character be Disney?

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He stars as the busboy at a beatnik bar who uses his incredibly lifelike sculptures to impress the hip clientele.

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As she deftly demonstrated the choreography’s awkwardness while playing it straight, my mind went for a moment to Audrey Hepburn’s beatnik dance in “Funny Face.”

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Spectral students from various eras offer a range of familiar types — jock, beatnik, stoner, gay kid —and remind us that as long as you live, and even afterward, you’re never out of high school.

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