Beat-Nik:
Derived from the word “beat” and coined by a San Francisco newspaper columnist, “Beatnik” draws its origins from a feeling of being unrefined and uncompromised. Stretch open those ears, they are in for a taste of some new and raw talent.
It involves a sort of nakedness of the mind, and, ultimately, of soul, a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness.
- Clellen Holmes, NY Times Magazine, 1952