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Newbie^[a] is a slang term for a novice, newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in a given profession or activity. In particular, it may refer to a new user of computers, and often concerns Internet activity, such as online gaming^[1] or Linux use.^[2]^[3]

The origin of this term is uncertain. Earliest uses probably date to late twentieth century United States Armed Forces jargon, though possible precursor terms date much earlier. The related term noob (often stylized as n00b) is frequently used in online gaming.

History

The 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.^[4]

In the 1960s and 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.^[5]

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.^{[citation needed]}

The earliest appearance of the term on the Internet may have been on the Usenet newsgroup talk.bizarre.^[6] By 1988, it had already entered online usage.^[7]

Coming from an oral tradition, the term has various spellings. Among alternative forms are "newby", "nubie", and "newbee" (e.g. Los Angeles Times 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.").^[4]

In 2000, Electronic Arts released The Sims. The game featured a tutorial house with a family called The Newbies.^[8]

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,^[9] while a "noob" refers disparagingly to an inexperienced or under-talented hacker or gamer who lacks the determination to learn.^[9]

The origin of "nub" means "non-usable body" in the context of military submarines. It referred to crew that were too new to contribute, while wasting precious oxygen.

Similar terms in other languages

In Korean, the equivalent term is chobo or hasu, the opposite of gosu, meaning "highly skilled".^{[citation needed]}
In Chinese, cainiao (simplified Chinese: 菜鸟; traditional Chinese: 菜鳥; pinyin: càiniǎo; lit. 'vegetable bird'). It either originated from Hong Kong^[10] or from the Taiwanese army.^{[citation needed]} It became an Internet slang term used in the Chinese-speaking community.

Notes

^ Also newb, noob, newby, newbie, newbee, noobie, n00b, nub, and nubie.

References

^ "MIT.edu". Web.mit.edu. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
^ "LinuxQuestions.org". LinuxQuestions.org. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
^ "Ubuntu Forums". Ubuntu Forums. Archived from the original on May 3, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
^ ^a ^b "newbie Archived March 27, 2020, at the Wayback Machine" The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989, OED Online, Oxford University Press, (subscription needed) March 8, 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". The Hacker's Dictionary. Lysator, the Academic Computer Society. Archived from the original on December 21, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2024.
^ Dyker, Barbara (May 31, 1988). "Re: some (should-be) ground-rules for submissions to comp.binaries.*". Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved May 5, 2009.
^ Ericka Blye (January 21, 2020). "The Sims: The Longest Existing Families". The Gamer. Webtoon. Archived from the original on February 27, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
^ ^a ^b Broek, Anna Vander (April 23, 2009). "Gamer Speak for Newbs". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 9, 2012. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
^ 都市汉子 (July 4, 2005). "试论网络语言的基本特点上" [On the Basic Characteristics of Internet Slangs] (in Simplified Chinese). Archived from the original on December 1, 2005. Retrieved October 31, 2018.