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Revision as of 17:56, 28 March 2011 by 173.8.152.5 (talk) (→Variants)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) For the Misplaced Pages behavioral guideline, see WP:NEWBIES. Not to be confused with Newby (disambiguation). "Noob" redirects here. For the Mortal Kombat character, see Noob Saibot.Newbie or noob is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in any profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet activity, such as online gaming. It can have derogatory connotations, but is also often used for descriptive purposes only, without a value judgment.
The term's origin is uncertain. Earliest uses probably date to late twentieth century U.S. military jargon, though possible precursor terms are much earlier. Variant forms of the noun include newby and newbee, while the related term noob (often spelt n00b) is often used in online gaming.
History
Its etymology is uncertain. It may derive from "newie", which is attested in U.S. and Australian sources of the 1850s and means 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.
In the 1960s–1970s the term "newbie" 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.
carls a noob
See also
- FNG, another term for someone new to a unit used in the Vietnam War.
- Layman
References
- MIT.edu
- "newbie" The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989, OED Online, Oxford University Press, (subscription needed) March 08, 2010.
- Entry for newbie in John Robert Elting, Ernest L. Deal, and Dan Cragg, A Dictionary of Soldier Talk, New York: Scribner, 1984, p. 209. ISBN 0-684-17862-1
- "Newbie". Jargon File. Catb.org. Retrieved May 5, 2009.
- Dyker, Barbara (June 1, 1988). "Re: some (should-be) ground-rules for submissions to comp.binaries.*". Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac. Retrieved May 5, 2009.