Let’s say two men, both strangers to you, are arguing within your earshot. The dispute is impassioned, but as you only hear snippets of it, you don’t know its subject. If you hear one of them say, “Stop talking about things you don’t know about, punk!” what do you take the italicized word to mean?
Options:
I take it as an accusation of stupidity, equivalent to “moron.”
I take it as an accusation of inexperience, equivalent to “tyro.”
I take it as a homophobic slur, equivalent to “faggot.”
I take it as an attempt to provoke the other into violence, just shy of blowing smoke in his face.
I take it as a generalized term of abuse without specific meaning.
Stimpy, you idiot! You left out <blank>
I did not format this as an auto-poll because I am interested in knowing the background of those who answer. Thus, if you’d note your ethnicity, gender, approximate age, and approximate location in your answer, I’d be grateful. For instance–I’m a 40something black male in Tennessee, and if I were to hear a black man in my neck of the woods utter the above insult, I would assume he was accusing the other person of being gay; I would also place good odds that hands were about to be thrown. Were it uttered by a white man, I would not necessarily think so.
Cowardly. Unable/unwilling to ‘step up’. Incapable. Kind like #2 but in the sense that no amount of experience will help. ‘Slacker’ might be the best synonym.
To me (a 40 yr. old white woman from midatlantic suburbs) “punk” as a perjorative (rather than a descriptive term for certain music/cultural scenes) always carries the connotation of youth and inexperience, with overtones of stupidity and general abuse.
I was never aware of it as a homophobic slur and it to me it seems pretty tame in the spectrum of insults
I choose #4, with a proviso. I don’t think its so much a call to violence, but sharing of information in which the speaker is letting the alleged punk know that he *could *kick the shit out of him if he wanted to.
6: I learned it to mean a person worthy of no respect, generally ineffectual, usually young (or younger than the one calling him a punk), tending to do annoying things. Someone you could beat the crap out of and are almost tempted to do so. Never got the slightest hint that it was a gay slur, but there was some overlap with calling someone a faggot as a general insult (i.e., not accusing him of actually being gay, just expressing contempt).
This is pretty much my take on it. A youngish person, usually male, who is prone to running contrary to the law, has little respect for authority, and has an attitude problem.
Oh, and can’t manage to pull it off in a way that’s cool.
Thirtysomething white female, from Virginia originally. In that particular context, I would take it to mean either #2 or #5.
That said, since I spend a good chunk of my professional life reading Elizabethan English, my first thought on reading the subject line was that it could also mean “prostitute.” (AFAIK, it would have been used for women only.)
Assuming the conversation didn’t seem to be about popular music or the styles associated with such, and neither person was ostentatiously pierced, tatooed, or bearing other signifiers of an alternative-music scene, then I’d go with “young/too stupid to know how inexperienced you are/disrespectful/general delinquent”. Not so strong an insult as to cause immediate violence. No hint of sexual preference implied.
Though in my overeducated white male, mumblety middle aged, eastern US circles, I’d expect to hear the music meaning of punk far more often. (If used as an insult, then typically countered with ‘Hippie!’ in return. Or perhaps ‘capitalist pig &#^$ republican’, depending on which applied).
I would not view the term “punk” as perjorative. I would think the person using that term would have noticed the punk’s nose rings or purple mohawk, or nearly slipped on his skateboard, and therefore, was aware that he was a Misfits fan.
I hear “punk” I think “skate punk.”
Caucasian, female, age 40, location: North Florida, but born and raised in Ohio. Old school punk rock days spanned Ohio - South Florida.
