This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rjanag (talk | contribs) at 19:28, 24 June 2009 (rmv GLM section. first of all, GLM's "millionth word" has already happened, and wasn't noob. Secondly, GLM is widely discredited among real linguists, and even if it weren't it is only one measure.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 19:28, 24 June 2009 by Rjanag (talk | contribs) (rmv GLM section. first of all, GLM's "millionth word" has already happened, and wasn't noob. Secondly, GLM is widely discredited among real linguists, and even if it weren't it is only one measure.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) "Noob" redirects here. For the Mortal Kombat character, see Noob Saibot.For the Misplaced Pages behavioral guideline, see WP:NEWBIES. Not to be confused with Newby. | This article may require cleanup to meet Misplaced Pages's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can. (July 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Newbie is a slang term for a newcomer to an Internet activity, for example online gaming. It can also be used for any other activity in whose context a somewhat clueless newcomer could exist. 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. 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. In any case, 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...").
In internet usage the full spelling of "newbie" has not been used so widely - often it has been shortened into other forms. A common variant is "n00b" or "noob", and is used as a pejorative for a user who fails to learn from experience, or in some cases, to degradingly refer to users who disrupt other users. Other spellings include "newb", "nub", "nooblet", "n00blet", or any version of these written in Leet.
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.