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Newbie 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.

Meaning

A noob, or newb, is a new user that is inexperienced and/or does not have experience, usually with online websites. Also known as newb, they are more commonly people who have just joined, but can also be long-time users

History

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", "noob", or "n00b" (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...").

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

1. 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
2. "Newbie". Catb.org. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
3. Barbara Dyker   View profile    More options (1988-05-31). "Post to ''comp.sys.mac'' in 1988". Groups.google.com. Retrieved 2009-05-05.

External links

• Merriam Webster on Newbie
• Global Language Monitor on n00b

• Articles needing cleanup from July 2009
• Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field from July 2009
• Misplaced Pages pages needing cleanup from July 2009
• Internet slang
• Video game culture
• Beginners and newcomers