beatnik

Meaning

Noun

• A person who dresses in a manner that is not socially acceptable and therewith is supposed to reject conventional norms of thought and behavior; nonconformist in dress and behavior
• A person associated with the Beat Generation of the 1950s and 1960s or its style.

Origin

• . From beat generation + cutesy or ironic use of the Russian suffix -ник. This suffix experienced a surge in English coinages for nicknames and diminutives after the 1957 Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite. Compare jazznik.