The character of Kirk had to be at pushing 40 in Trek I, which everyone pretends didn’t exist anyway; in his late 40s in Treks II, III, & IV, which take place within months of one another. He was far too old to be a tyro. He was a maverick, in the non-Palin sense of the term.
I must say I am surprised that only one person has come up with this. I had understood it to be the origin of the insult - a punk was a weak, effeminate youth who gained power and protection by putting out for older more powerful prisoners, and who talked trash above his real weight as a consequence. Reminding him that he was a punk was telling him that the only reason he felt tough enough to talk the way he was was because he was essentially a passive homosexual prostitute.
Over time, the word morphed to mean something less strong (in the way calling someone a “mother” has), more like “feckless youth”, without the connotation that the reason behind the lack of feck was the unfortunately earned protection of a prison power-player. Without the sting in the tail (so to speak), the insult just meant “kid with attitude” which came to almost be a badge of honour.
Thus (it seemed to me) there was a largely generational disconnect between the red-faced middle aged Clint Eastwood-type guy calling someone a punk as a savage insult, and the audience for the insult which thought it was a pretty lame.
#2, mostly, but you’re not just calling them young- you’re also calling them arrogant, weak, and cowardly. I’ve actually never heard the homosexual implications before.
22, male, white, West Coast.
#2, unless an older (40+) black person is the one who said it, then I’d assume they meant #3.
I’m black, and live in the northeast.
#6.
I refer to the adjectival usage, now archaic, meaning anything lousy, crummy, or lacking in basic qualities.
I’ll quote my grandfather, a one-time Bridgeport, CT, alderman and unregenerate Socialist. When interviewed circa 1947 about the machine that had run that city for decades (and that he had once been part of), he said: “I never said McLevy’s brand of Socialism was pink. I said it was punk.”
I’m 43/W/M/Midwest, with East Coast ancestry.
White female, early 40’s, lived across the US: I’d assume it meant ‘little shit’, as in both ‘noob’ and ‘bring it’.
2, but I understand all the history behind 3.
Coloured 30-something male, South Africa
This. I’m a seventeen year old white girl in Australia.
#2 and #4, no implication of homosexuality. Punks: ignorant, immature, inexperienced - stupid enough to think they’re ‘bad’ and street-wise, but really not smart enough to stay out of the (possibly deadly) trouble they’ve gotten into. Worse, it’s trouble that they’ll compound by taking offense at the slight, when they should be shittin’ their pants from the cold way it was delivered. I’m white, male, 50-ish, Southern California, been exposed to a lot of Grade B cop shows over the years.
Stimpy, you idiot! You left out my understanding of “punk”!
Punk, to me, means the rejection of societal norms and beliefs in a destructive way. But the movement isn’t destructive, per se. It just wants to establish new and better norms. Albeit in the destruction of the old norms. To me that’s “punk”.
In prison, a punk is a “girlfriend”, usually unwilling, newly introduced into the system. Young, fresh and “inexperienced”, so to speak.
A punk is also a pyrotechnic device that burns much like a stick of incense (but hotter), used to light other devices.
Or so I’ve heard. I don’t do fireworks and haven’t been to prison.
#6 **Skald **you etymological midget ! A punk’s a bitch, in the prison, but non-sexual sense of the word. Someone cowardly, easily intimidated, a man sans großen cojònes. A guy who talks the talk, but wouldn’t know the walk if it mugged him in a dark alley.
Male, 28, France
Male, midthirties, grew up in the upper midwest.
#2, mostly, with the implication that the punk is also coward enough to turn tail and run when he (always he) reaches the belated conclusion that he’s out of his depth. A tyro who takes the beating he’s earned, and doesn’t either flee or whine about it later is merely a tyro, and will eventually grow out of it; a punk, by implication won’t.
Haven’t read the other responses yet, but I’ve always thought it meant something like “Insolent scoundrel!” As in for example “This conversation should already be over because I’ve ended it, and every time you cause it to continue you are showing disrespect to me.”
I have actually heard the term used in all of the ways mentioned. It seems like a sort of all purpose insult. The insultee will interpret it based on context and insulter, I think. In the context of the OP (“talking about things you don’t know”) the sense of being someone’s bitch is probably absent.
White female, 63; grew up in the midwest, lived briefly in GA, most of life in SoCal.
You just called me older, punk. :mad:
I take it as like calling a man a faggot I guess…before I read the choices, I was thinking it was like calling a man “bitch”, but I guess that’s pretty much the same thing. Actually, punk and bitch go to together, e.g. “punk bitch”.
Although, like you said, it would depend on who was saying it. But that’s how I normally hear it used.
-female, white, 27, Seattle
A weak kid who takes it up the ass to avoid being beaten up. I was told by a black friend about 25 years ago that this was the meaning. So even when applied to punk rock, I apply that meaning. You asked, I didn’t volunteer this. I don’t use the word.
That’s a good way of saying young, stupid, and willfully arrogant. I’ve never ever heard it in the context of gay.
As a noun, the “juvenile delinquent” definition fits with the verb use “punked” which is closer in meaning to pranked and has nothing to do with sexual orientation.
51, Ohio white male with a tinge of Mediterranean, hobbies include photography, biking, flying, cooking, and answering opinion polls.
Well, obviously.
If it’s not clear by now, I asked because I was wondering whether the difference in perceived meaning is indicative of regional, chronal, or racial factors.