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Newbie or n00b is a slang term for a newcomer to an Internet activity, for example online gaming. It can also be used to indicate an individual inexperienced in any other activity. It can have derogatory connotations, but is also often used for descriptive purposes only, without a value judgment.
History
The word newbie is a variant of new boy and comes from British public school and military slang. Newbie has also been considered a variant of new baby. In the 1960s the term "newbie" also had a limited usage among U.S. troops in the Vietnam War as a slang term for a new man in a unit. Its earliest known usage on the Internet may have been on the USENET newsgroup talk.bizarre. The term is believed to have entered online usage by 1981.
Variants
Coming from an oral tradition, the term has variant spellings, including "newbee" (e.g. Los Angeles Times of August 1985: "It had to do with newbees. I could be wrong on the spelling, but newbees are the rookies among the Blue Angels...").
Internet usage of the full spelling of "newbie" has not been as widely used as shortened forms. A common variant is "n00b" or "noob", in many cases a negative term used degradingly, which may refer to anyone whom the user wants to disparage, novice or not. Other spellings include "newb", "nub", "nooblet", "n00blet", or any version of these written in Leet. The leet variation, n00b, with two zeros replacing the letter 'o' was accepted as a word in the English language lexicon by the Global Language Monitor on June 10, 2009.
"Leet" may be regarded as the opposite of "n00b". Leet, "1337" or "l33t" refers to high ranked players who understand what they are doing, are acknowledged in the gaming community, and are the best of what they do in-game.
See also
- FNG, another term for someone new to a unit used in the Vietnam War.
- Newbie is the surname of a fictional family in The Sims computer game series.
References
- Entry for newbie in John Robert Elting, Ernest L. Deal, and Dan Cragg, A Dictionary of Soldier Talk (New York: Scribner, 1984), 209. ISBN 0684178621
- "Newbie". Catb.org. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
- Barbara Dyker View profile More options (1988-05-31). "Post to ''comp.sys.mac'' in 1988". Groups.google.com. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
- 'Noob' could be the millionth English word, MSN.com