Important Things to Know #15: The Beatnik Dictionary

[james bond]

"Interestingly much of beatnik slang has gone mainstream and is still in use today." -- Ace of Spades

"AX- A musical instrument of any kind.
BALL-To have a good time.
BENNIES - Benzedrine pills, which are used to stimulate emotional reaction.
BREAD- Money. Used always in stead of money. For example, "Have you -any bread? Gotta have some quick."
BUFF- A real authority on jazz music.
BUGGED-Someone who is bothered, upset, obsessed.
BUSTED-To get arrested by the police. Only a beatnik can be busted; ordinary human being always get arrested, never busted.
CAT- All the new bohemians are called cats. A cat is anyone who is uninhibited, free of all sex taboos, a complete nonconformist.
COOL - A term used for anything that is liked or greatly admired, such as a song or a woman. For example, "She's a real cool cat."
CONNECTION-This is a contact man for drugs.
COP OUT-To sell out to society and go conventional, which can mean anything from shaving to getting a steady job to pay the rent on the same bed every night.

Important Things to Know #15: The Beatnik Dictionary | Retrospace

 

[Two Thumbs]

AX; a guitar or sax, not any instument
beannies; beany babies
bread; this is so outdated
buff; lots of muscle
cat; outdated
cool; taken, mostly, from The Fonz
connection; used mostly with computer-internet


so not that interesting

 

[xband]

I thought Bread was a hippie term for money but found out the band Bread played very good hard rock and roll.

 

[Auld Phart]

Beatnik?

Get it from the source

 

[james bond]

AX; a guitar or sax, not any instument
beannies; beany babies
bread; this is so outdated
buff; lots of muscle
cat; outdated
cool; taken, mostly, from The Fonz
connection; used mostly with computer-internet


so not that interesting

I never said its the same. The terms are still in use today, but the meaning's changed. It's retro. Today we got urbandictionary.

AX - ebonics form of ask; guitar; In the world of Jazz, this would be your instrument of choice
BENNIES - A tourist who visits the Jersey shore from Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, or New York (or anywhere near these places; A slang term for the drug "Benzedrine" that came into the U.S. around 1928 as inhalers, and later on in tablet form. It is a stimulant similar to methamphetamine
BREAD - Cash, money, paper....etc; Bahamian slang for female genital/pussy
BUFF - When someone is looking fine u say they are buff (London ting); Very strong or having defined muscles, hot. Used mostly for guys.
CAT - The definitive pet. Cleans self. Knows how to catch it's food. (How many memes do we see?); A person, usually male and generally considered or thought to be cool
COOL - The best way to say something is neat-o, awesome, or swell; A word to use when you don't know what else to say, or when you are not that interested in the conversation; Awesome
CONNECTION - person you buy your dope from; (used mostly with computer-internet? lol)

 

[Two Thumbs]

its not retro

Ax, cat, cool go back well before beatnic

 

[james bond]

its not retro

Ax, cat, cool go back well before beatnic

Probably. I'm going by the website which seems to be 50s and 60s. It says it got it from a 60s magazine. Almost everything comes and goes and comes back again.

I wasn't that familiar with Beatniks except from 50s movies. Was interested in director Roger Corman, the B-movie King, several years ago and I remembered the movie called A Bucket of Blood which he made in 1959.

It came from this...

"The hippies didn't much like the Beatniks and they really hated the punks. The punks didn't much like the hippies and they really hated the hardcore kids. So it's been this cycle of bohemians hating each other," says Ada Calhoun, author of the acclaimed book St. Mark's is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street.

America's Hippest Street: "A Cycle of Bohemians Hating Each Other"

The Many Lives of St. Marks Place - The New Yorker

We had this on the west coast, too.

 

[peach174]

We still use some of the slang from the 1920's also.
Slang of the 1920

 

[Sunni Man]

The first main stream American beatnik.......Maynard G Krebs