Editing Beatnik (section)

==Etymology==
The origin of the word "beatnik" is traditionally ascribed to [[Herb Caen]] from his column in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' on April 2, 1958, where he wrote "[[Look (American magazine)|''Look'' magazine]], preparing a picture spread on S.F.'s Beat Generation (oh, no, not AGAIN!), hosted a party in a No. Beach house for 50 Beatniks, and by the time word got around the sour grapevine, over 250 bearded cats and kits were on hand, slopping up Mike Cowles' free booze. They're only Beat, y'know, when it comes to work ..."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Pocketful-of-Notes-2855259.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128190058/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F1997%2F02%2F06%2FMN18715.DTL|url-status=dead|title=Pocketful of Notes|first=Herb|last=Caen|date=February 6, 1997|archive-date=January 28, 2011|website=SFGate.com}}</ref> It is claimed that Caen coined the term by adding the [[Yiddish]] suffix ''[[-nik]]'' to ''Beat'' as in the Beat Generation. Nik, as a suffix was also in vogue due to the Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the planet, in 1957. The suffix came to be used in colloquial synthetics such as Nogoodnik, etc.

An earlier source from 1954, or possibly 1957 after the launch of [[Sputnik]], is ascribed to Ethel (Etya) Gechtoff, the well-known owner of a San Francisco Art Gallery.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/LETTERS-TO-DATEBOOK-2823513.php |title=Pinpointing Origins of 'Beatnik' |last=Whyte |first=Malcolm |date=November 11, 1997 |website=SFGate.com |publisher=SFGATE |access-date=2022-03-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.timelinesdb.com/listevents.php?subjid=215&dayinhist=0&date1=-99999999999&date2=99999999999&words=&title=SF&fromrec=1260 |title=Timelines SF |website=Timelinesdb.com |access-date=2022-03-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wickizer |first=Stephanie |date=1996 |title=The Beat Generation Galleries and Beyond |publisher=John Natsoulas Press |page=129 |isbn=9781881572886}}</ref>

Objecting to the term, Allen Ginsberg wrote to ''The New York Times'' to deplore "the foul word beatnik", commenting, "If beatniks and not illuminated Beat poets overrun this country, they will have been created not by Kerouac but by industries of mass communication which continue to brainwash man."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=If4g5TkKQoQC&pg=PT227|title=The Letters of Allen Ginsberg|first1=Allen|last1=Ginsberg|first2=Bill|last2=Morgan|date=September 2, 2008|publisher=Hachette Books|isbn=9780786726011|via=Google Books}}</ref>