Newbie, newb, noob, noobie, n00b or nub is a

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-g ...

term for a

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

newcomer Newcomer may refer to: * Newcomer (surname) * Newcomer (Lenape), chief of the western Lenape and founder of Newcomerstown, Ohio * Newcomer, Missouri, a community in the United States * Novichok agent, ''Novichok'' meaning 'Newcomer' in Russian ...

, or somebody inexperienced in a profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

activity, such as online gaming or

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

use. The origin of this term is uncertain. Earliest uses probably date to late twentieth century

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...

jargon Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...

, though possible precursor terms are much earlier. Variant forms of the noun include newby and newbie, while the related term

noob Newbie, newb, noob, noobie, n00b or nub is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in a profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet ac ...

(often stylized as "n00b") is often used in online gaming.

History

Etymology of the term is uncertain. It may derive from "newie", which is attested in U.S. and Australian sources of the 1850s, meaning a neophyte in a place or situation; alternatively, it may derive from the British public school slang "new boy" or "new blood", which is attributed to the same era and was applied to a schoolboy in his first term.newbie
''The Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd ed., 1989, ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, (subscription needed) March 8, 2010. In the 1960s and 1970s, the term "newbie" had a limited usage among U.S. troops in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

as a slang term for a new man in a unit. Another use of the term newbee was the moniker given to new U.S. Navy recruit students attending Basic Electricity and Electronics school by more senior students, a requisite course prior to enrollment in the A-school course at Naval Air Technical Training Center,

Millington, Tennessee Millington is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and is a part of the Memphis metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 10,176. Millington was granted the title "Flag City Tennessee" by the Tennessee Stat ...

. Its earliest known usage on an internet may have been on the

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...

newsgroup ''talk.bizarre''. The term is believed to have entered online usage by 1981. Coming from an oral tradition, the term has various spellings. Among alternative forms are "newby", "nubie", and "newbee" (e.g. ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' of August 1985: "It had to do with newbees. I could be wrong on the spelling, but newbies are the rookies among the

Blue Angels The Blue Angels is a flight demonstration squadron of the United States Navy.

."). In 2000,

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

released

The Sims ''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation game, life simulation video games developed by Maxis and video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling ...

. The game featured a tutorial house with a family called The Newbies. In 2009, "noob" was among candidates for the one-millionth English word selection by the Global Language Monitor.

Connotations of variants

Different spellings can have quite different connotations; so in some contexts a "newb" refers to a beginner who is willing to learn, while a "

" refers disparagingly to an inexperienced or under-talented hacker or gamer who lacks the determination to learn.

Similar terms in other languages

* In

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, the equivalent term is '' chobo'' or ''hasu'', the opposite of '' gosu'', meaning "highly skilled". * In Chinese, '' cainiao'' (). It either originated from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

or from the Taiwanese army. It became an Internet slang term used in the Chinese-speaking community.

Notes

References

External links