Jazznik

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who plays jazz music professionally or who is a passionate follower and fan of the jazz genre
2. Someone who performs jazz or who is an enthusiastic admirer of jazz music and its culture
3. A musician working in jazz, or an enthusiast deeply devoted to listening to and promoting that style of music

Etymology: The word is a blend of "jazz" and a Slavic suffix that English borrowed from Russian. The base is "jazz," a word of uncertain origin for music, and the ending "-nik" comes from the Russian suffix "-ник," which marks a person who exemplifies or endorses something. Russian words such as "-ник" appear in names and agent nouns, and English picked up the pattern in the twentieth century. The suffix became especially productive in English after 1957, when the Soviet launch of the Sputnik spacecraft gave English speakers a stock of Russian-sounding coinages. Writers reached for "-nik" to make playful nicknames and diminutives, and the wave of words that followed included "beatnik," the label for members of the Beat generation. "Jazznik" follows the same pattern, attaching the suffix to the musical term to name a person who lives and works in jazz.