"beatnik"--coined by Herb Caen?

[Ron]

The Herb Caen I knew certainly took credit for this -- and Sputnik was
definitely the source of the appended suffix.

Ron Silliman

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas G. Wilson [mailto:douglas at NB.NET]
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 2:00 AM
Subject: Re: "beatnik"--coined by Herb Caen?

>That claim, made tonight on Jeopardy, is supported by various web
>sites (the idea being that the San Francisco Chronicle columnist came
>up with the term in a 1958 column, of course as a blend of "beat
>(generation)" and "sputnik"), but does not appear in the OED entry
>for the word.  The RHHDAS does endorse the Herb Caen coinage, though.
>Are any antedates available, or is this an rare actual instance of a
>verifiable and attested coinage?

I can't refute the claim.

I suppose the basis for the coinage is "beat" + "-nik", with the
Russian/Yiddish suffix "-nik" possibly applied by analogy with the
already
available "nudnik", which was itself popularized ca. 1957 by its
association with "sputnik" IIRC. Just my naive notion.

-- Doug Wilson