usually faintly pejorative, coined 1958 by San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen during the heyday of
-nik suffixes in the wake of
Sputnik. From
Beat generation (1952), associated with
beat in its meanings "rhythm (especially in jazz)" as well as "worn out, exhausted," but originator Jack Kerouac (1922-69) in 1958 connected it with
beatitude.
The origins of the word beat are obscure, but the meaning is only too clear to most Americans. More than the feeling of weariness, it implies the feeling of having been used, of being raw. It involves a sort of nakedness of the mind." ["New York Times Magazine," Oct. 2, 1952]
[beet-nik] 
) a member of the Beat Generation.
