newbie

English

Alternative forms

• noobie

Etymology

Uncertain: perhaps an alteration of newie with intrusive b (compare freebie), possibly a blend of newborn +‎ baby, or perhaps a shortening of new boy or new beginner.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnjuːbi/, /ˈnuːbi/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːbi

Noun

newbie (plural newbies)

1. (slang) A newcomer, someone new to something. [from 20th c.]
   • 2020 January 23, Scottie Andrew, Allen Kim and Tiffany Baker, “How to talk about the Grammys best new artist nominees like a pro”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     We’ve included some other acts you already know so you’ll get a feel for what the newbies sound like.

   • 2024 September 13 [2023 March 31], Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, “The Newbie Gains Guide for Skinny Guys”, in Bony to Beastly‎^[2]:

     If you’re starting off skinny, you can probably get newbie gains for several months.

2. (Internet) A new user or participant; someone who is extremely new and inexperienced (to a game or activity). A beginner.
3. (slang) Anything recently introduced into a setting, especially something that replaces an older version.
   • 2005, Rickford Grant, Linux Made Easy: The Official Guide to Xandros 3 for Everyday Users, San Francisco: No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 155:

     If you find that you would prefer using the new printer most of the time, while using the original only when needed, you can make the newbie the default printer for your system.

Usage notes

• The term "newbie" was greatly popularized with the advent of the Internet, but was in use before then.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:newbie.

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• novice
• newcomer
• newling
• rookie
• See also Thesaurus:beginner

Antonyms

• knowbie

Coordinate terms

• midbie
• oldbie

Derived terms

• -bie
• don't bite the newbie
• newb
• newbie gains
• newbieness
• noob, n00b, nub

Translations

new (inexperienced) user or participant

• Arabic: مُبْتَدِئ m (mubtadiʔ)

  Egyptian Arabic: ابن امبارح m (ebn embāreḥ), محدث m (móḥdas)

• Belarusian: нава́к m (navák), навачо́к m (navačók), навічо́к m (navičók)
• Bulgarian: нова́к (bg) m (novák), аджами́я (bg) m (adžamíja)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 新手 (zh) (xīnshǒu), 菜鳥 / 菜鸟 (zh) (càiniǎo) (slang), 小白 (zh) (xiǎobái)

• Czech: nováček m
• Danish: nybegynder (da) c
• Dutch: nieuweling (nl) m, beginneling (nl) m, debutant (nl) m, nieuwkomer (nl) m
• Finnish: aloittelija (fi), keltanokka (fi), vasta-alkaja (fi), mopo (fi), nyyppä (fi)
• French: néophyte (fr) m or f, béotien (fr) m, débutant (fr) m, profane (fr) m or f
• Galician: anovao m, anová f
• Georgian: გამოუცდელი (gamoucdeli), ახალბედა (axalbeda), დამწყები (damc̣q̇ebi)
• German: Neuling (de) m, Anfänger (de) m
• Hungarian: újonc (hu), kezdő (hu)
• Italian: nabbo (it) m, niubbo (it) m, principiante (it)
• Japanese: 初心者 (ja) (しょしんしゃ, shoshinsha), 今道心 (いまどうしん, imadōshin), 若僧 (わかぞう, wakazō)
• Kazakh: үйренбеген (üirenbegen)
• Korean: 초보자 (ko) (choboja)
• Macedonian: новајлија m (novajlija)
• Norwegian: nybegynner (no), newbie (no) m
• Persian: تازه‌کار (fa) (tâze-kâr)
• Polish: nowicjusz (pl) m, nowicjuszka (pl) f, newbie (pl) m
• Portuguese: novato (pt), iniciante (pt), neófito (pt) m, principiante (pt)
• Russian: новичо́к (ru) m (novičók), (e.g. new student) но́венький (ru) m (nóvenʹkij)
• Slovak: nováčik m
• Slovene: novinec m
• Spanish: novato (es), usuario nuevo m, principiante (es) m or f
• Swedish: nybörjare (sv) c, blåbär (sv) n
• Turkish: çaylak (tr), çömez (tr)
• Ukrainian: нова́к (uk) m (novák), новачо́к (uk) m (novačók), нова́чка (uk) f (nováčka)