Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
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.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A person associated with the Beat Generation of the 1950s and 1960s or its style.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: beat
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: beat
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: nonconformist, recusant
History
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.
Across languages
20 source translations are retained for this English entry.
