[kj] Prisons had punks first

[fatpotanga]

from erm...
  where's that bloody link gone. bugger - dropped it.
mutter mutter
[rummages under desk]
aha!
here: http://www.answers.com/topic/punk

I love the last sentence.
read it in circa 1950's BBC-esque received pronunciation thingy voice

punk
Origin: 1618

Something like punk has been smoldering in American English for  
hundreds of years, undergoing drastic changes of meaning from century  
to century. It began as a bizarre kind of overcooked corn, explained  
in a 1618 account of certain Indians in Virginia: "Some of them, more  
thriftye then cleanly, doe burne the coare of the eare to powder,  
which they call pungnough, mingling that in their meale, but yt never  
tasted well in bread or broath." Around that time, also, punk was a  
word for "ashes" in the Delaware Indian language.
A couple of centuries later, punk had become a word for the slow- 
burning sticks used in kindling fireworks. By 1889 it was a slang  
term for a cigarette, and by the end of the century punk had a sense  
"worthless" as in a story by George Ade: "And this crowd up there was  
purty-y-y punk."
Today's first meaning of punk, a small-time hoodlum, developed in the  
period between the World Wars. And in the late 1970s punk came to  
designate bizarre clothing and body decorations associated with loud  
and aggressive rock music. To the general public, it still has an  
unpleasant taste.







On 29 Jan 2008, at 06:34, B. Oliver Sheppard wrote:


> From Wikipedia, which is infallible:

>

>

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock#Origin_of_the_term_punk

>

> Origin of the term punk

>

> Preceding the mid-1970s, punk, a centuries-old word of obscure  

> etymology, was commonly used to describe "a young male hustler, a  

> gangster, a hoodlum, or a ruffian".[44] As Legs McNeil explains,  

> "On TV, if you watched cop shows, Kojak, Baretta, when the cops  

> finally catch the mass murderer, they'd say, 'you dirty Punk.' It  

> was what your teachers would call you. It meant that you were the  

> lowest."[45] The first known use of the phrase "punk rock" appeared  

> in the Chicago Tribune on March 22, 1970, attributed to Ed Sanders,  

> cofounder of New York's anarcho-prankster band The Fugs. Sanders  

> was quoted describing a solo album of his as "punk rock—redneck  

> sentimentality."[46] In the December 1970 issue of Creem, Lester  

> Bangs, mocking more mainstream rock musicians, made ironic  

> reference to Iggy Pop as "that Stooge punk".[47] Suicide's Alan  

> Vega credits this usage with inspiring his duo to bill its gigs as  

> a "punk mass" for the next couple of years.[48]

>

> [...]

>

>

> --Oliver

>

>

> Brendan Quinn wrote:

>> Dude have you slept or eaten since starting to look into this?  

>> You're more

>> than welcome to you know.

>>

>> ;p

>>

>>

>>

>

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