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r/solarpunk • … • u/jaiagreen

"Solarpunk" Etymology

In light of some recent debates here, I wanted to point out the source of the word "solarpunk". It is not "solar"+"punk" in the sense of the musical/cultural movement. Rather, it comes from science fiction, where appending "-punk" has been used in naming new subgenres for several decades. The original was cyberpunk, which used "punk" in the sense of a loner or outcast. In the 90s and 2000s, the suffix took on a life of its own. The best-known derivative is probably steampunk, but there's a whole [Wikipedia article's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_derivatives) worth. Solarpunk is one such subgenre, which some people are trying to bring into the real world. I think that's great and is actually the point of the fiction, but judging if something is solarpunk by whether it's punk doesn't really make sense.

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