The definition of punk has changed many times, since its first appearance in the written English language and will probably continue to change as our language evolves to meet the demands of each new generation. Each new version of punk began as a slightly altered meaning from a prior definition, and often, it was slang used by a small group of people. Over time, if that use caught on in the general public�s dialogue, the new usage became part of everyday speech and a new definition was established. Today, punk means different things to people of different generations. My grandmother still thinks of punk as a word that describes a young, low life, such as the way Clint Eastwood used it in his spaghetti Westerns.  To me, punk will always define my favorite type of music.

        Punk music was founded in the �70�s in places like New York City and played at CBGB�s, a club in the Bowery near skid row. Punk wanted to bring back the sounds of the garage bands of the �50�s, with a �70�s street smart edge. Punk started out to make rock & roll music more in tune with what was happening in everyday life in the urban scene. Punk groups included:  �The Ramones�, �The New York Dolls�, �The Talking Heads�, �Blondie� and �Iggy Pop and the Stooges�, to name just a few. The music didn�t catch on in the United States because the American economy was booming. Unemployment was down and Americans, outside the big cities, such as Detroit and New York, were complacent and happy with their lives. Few in America found that the new sounds or rebellious lyrics of this new music related to their comfortable, middle class existence. However, in England, there was an economic crisis, unemployment was high and the ghettos were teeming with poverty. This climate was perfect for the growing of �Punk Rock�, which was angry and anti-everything. It was the voice of the lost urban youth. Punk reached those who were alienated by the rest of society because of the economic crisis in England. Punk addressed the feelings of thousands of angry, unemployed youth in the English ghettos and gave them a way to strike out and be heard. Groups such as �The Clash�,  �The Sex Pistols�, �The Slits� and many others, took England by storm. �Punk� became a style of dressing, an attitude, and a way of life in England, but not in America. Punk was vastly influenced by the cultural diversity of the English ghettos, particularly the music of the Jamaican immigrants. It adopted musical style from Jamaica and combined the reggae beat with rock & roll chords, making it vastly different from �Pink Floyd� and �Lead Zeppelin�, groups that controlled the music airwaves. Punk only caught on in America during the early �90�s with the �Nirvana� and �Sonic Youth� craze and died out soon after in �94 with the death of Kurt Cobain, the head of  �Nirvana�.  Punk is now defined for my generation as this rebellious type of music and the counterculture surrounding it.

        In contrast to my definition of punk as music, the word punk has been around in the English language for a long time. The word punk has had many different meanings and the meanings have changed throughout its history.  Currently, according to The American Heritage College Dictionary, punk has several meanings. The first meaning is a young person, especially a member of a rebellious counterculture group.  A second meaning is an inexperienced man who is a sexual partner of an older man. A third current definition is punk rock, similar to my definition. It can also refer to the unusual style of dress worn by the punk rockers and their followers. The fourth definition for the word punk is dried, decayed wood, used as tinder. The fifth definition is any of various substances that smolder when ignited, or are used to light fireworks. The sixth definition is Chinese incense.  The last definition of punk, currently in the dictionary, is of poor quality, worthless or weak in spirits or health.

        Each of these definitions was introduced into the English language at a different point in time. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, the word punk appeared as early as the late 16th century.  In  1596, the word punk was spelled �punck� and meant a prostitute or a harlot. In 1603, it still referred to a woman that �was neither a maid, a widow nor a wife�, a woman who was a prostitute. This definition was still used as late as 1928 when A. Huxley used punk in his work Point Counter Point to describe the prostitute as �the poor super-annulated punk�.  This definition of punk, which was the earliest used in written English, is no longer a present meaning. Women as prostitutes are no longer referred to as punk. One of the present definitions is some one who is worthless, like a vagrant or criminal. This definition may be a broadening of the original definition, extending the meaning to include other people at the lower end of the social spectrum. Punk can also refer to a passive male homosexual or a worthless, young, petty criminal.

        In 1670, there was another rare use of the word, punk. Punk was used to describe things that were cut into round pieces, such as were cut with a shoemaker�s punch or �punk�.  The following sentence is from E. Brown in the Phil. Trans. V. (p1198).  �They cut them out into round pieces with an Instrument like a Shoemakers Punk.� Again, this definition of the word punk is no longer used in present day English. This definition of punk, probably, was short for puncture. It is easy to see how this was an abbreviation of the word puncture. The �ct� in puncture was changed to a �k� and the word was shortened to punk.
As early as 1705, punk was in use in a totally different way. In 1705, R. Beverley in Hist. & Present State Virginia used the word punk in the following sentence: �Or else they take punck, which is a sort of a soft Touchwood, cut out of it the knots of Oak or Hiccory Trees, but the Hiccory affords the best.�(p49).  Punk was defined as rotten wood, a fungus growing on wood or dry wood used for tinder. This definition continued in use in the English language all the way up to 1976 when in the magazine, �Yankee�, the hull of a boat was described as �a honeycomb with intervening wood turned to punk�. This definition of punk as tinder or rotten wood is still accepted and was in my current dictionary.  A current sentence using this definition of punk could be: We�ll get some punk so that we can start the fire in the fireplace, because it is cold tonight. This meaning of the word, punk, may have been derived by shortening the word, spunk or spunck, which meant tinder or dry wood.

        Two other meanings of the word punk, which came into use in 1869 and 1870, were something worthless and Chinese incense. Both of these definitions were new definitions based on the above definition of punk, meaning tinder. In the case of Chinese incense, the Chinese burned little pieces of bamboo, along with other herbs. Since little pieces of wood, that were burned, were called punk, the Chinese incense became known as punk. However, there have been no references to Chinese incense as punk since 1953.

        Since tinder was usually worthless wood, wood not large enough or of good enough in quality to used in building things, punk gained a new meaning, something worthless. Punk has been used to mean something worthless until the 1970�s.  In Dolly & Cookie Bird, D. Halliday wrote: �I told him what Celeste said about Capricorn and Scorpio, and he said, �Honestly, Sarah. You don�t believe all that punk?��.  Today older people still may be heard to say, �That�s a bunch of punk.�  They mean that whatever they are describing is meaningless or worthless.

        In 1891 through 1975, punk was also used as a slang word for bread. This definition of punk came from tramps that ate stale, moldy, old bread, which they called punk. They also referred to butter as plaster, another unique slang word, which was everyday speech for tramps in this time period. Both of these definitions, bread and butter have been used in common English up until 1975. This meaning might have come from punk�s definition as small bits of rotten wood, because the bread probably looked like that. Alternatively, this use of punk by the tramps could have been derived from punk, meaning worthless. The bread that the tramps ate was free because it was past its time for sale.

        Punk also described youths, novices and young circus animals in show business slang. This definition referring to novices was a new modification of punk, which meant worthless. In circus slang, punk was used to describe someone without skills or experience. This new member of the company had to be taught every act from the beginning. This young person without experience was called a worthless punk. This meaning was extended to the very young, child actors, and eventually, to young animals. This transformation of punk was in use from 1923 up until the 1970�s. In 1971, this sentence appeared in an article in the Victoria, BC, Canada �Islander� magazine: �At least 71, cantankerous Lizzie�s trunk had been paralyzed as the result of once having overzealously disciplined a young elephant, or punk�.

        The word, punk, has had many definitions, modifications and transformations throughout the years. Many of the accepted definitions began as slang. Slang has played a very important part in the development of the English language, and the word, punk, illustrates how slang, new meanings or uses of a word, eventually became accepted definitions as time passed and that specific use was established in the every day language of people. My definition of punk as a type of music and now as a counterculture started as slang in the 1970�s and 80�s. It sprang from the meaning that my grandmother still uses, punk as an angry and unacceptable young person, a low life. This transition is easy to see, since this type of music was the music of the angry, frustrated youth of the American inner cities and the English ghettos. It spread into popular use because many people were isolated and frustrated with the lack of meaning in their lives. The era of the blue-collar worker was coming to an end during the late �70�s and �80�s and was most apparent in the economic crisis in England. Thus, the meaning of punk has been changed to reflect the use of the word in our era. Punk as music and its counterculture is the most recent definition and the most meaningful for younger generations.  This definition is now accepted worldwide and is common in everyday English. Based on the changes that have occurred in the definition of punk over the last two centuries, who knows what punk will mean in a hundred years?
 

Stuart Balius