novice

English

Etymology

From Middle English novice, novys, from Anglo-Norman novice, Middle French novice, itself borrowed from Latin novīcius, later novitius (“new, newly arrived”) (in Late Latin as a noun, masculine novicius, feminine novicia (“one who has newly entered a monastery or a convent”)), from novus (“new”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnɒvɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈnɑvɪs/

  • Audio (Canada):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈnɔvɪs/, /ˈnɒvɪs/

Noun

novice (plural novices)

1. A beginner; one who is not very familiar or experienced in a particular subject. [from 14th c.]

   I'm only a novice at coding, and my programs frequently have bugs that more experienced programmers would avoid.

3. (religion) A new member of a religious order accepted on a conditional basis, prior to confirmation. [from 14th c.]
   • 1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), page 1137:

     Nor had it been difficult to find a Coptic priest who, together with his youthful novice, chanted the seemingly interminable Egyptian service of the dead […]

Synonyms

• (person new to an activity): amateur, greenhorn, learner, neophyte, newbie, newling
• See also Thesaurus:beginner

Related terms

• novel
• novelisation
• novelise
• novelization
• novelize
• novella
• novelty
• novitiate

 

Translations

beginner — see beginner

new member of a religious order

• Bulgarian: послушник m (poslušnik), послушница f (poslušnica)
• Catalan: novici (ca) m, novícia (ca) m
• Czech: novic (cs) m, novicka (cs) f
• Danish: novice c
• Esperanto: novico
• Finnish: noviisi (fi)
• Galician: novizo m, noviza f
• Georgian: ახალბედა (axalbeda)
• German: Novize (de) m, Novizin (de) f
• Greek: δόκιμος (el) m (dókimos), δόκιμη f (dókimi)
• Hungarian: novícius (hu), papnövendék (hu), -jelölt (hu)
• Lao: ຈົວ (chūa)
• Macedonian: ѓак m (ǵak), по́слушник m (póslušnik), иску́шеник m (iskúšenik)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: novise m (male), novise m or f (female)

  Nynorsk: novise m (male), novise f (female)

• Polish: nowicjusz (pl) m, nowicjuszka (pl) f
• Portuguese: noviço (pt) m, noviça (pt) f
• Russian: послу́шник (ru) m (poslúšnik), послу́шница (ru) f (poslúšnica)
• Spanish: novicio (es) m, novicia (es) f
• Swedish: novis (sv) c
• Turkish: çömez (tr)
• Ukrainian: неофі́т m (neofít)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Hausa: ^{(please verify)} mutumin da ya ke bako kan wasu aiyuka

Further reading

• “novice”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “novice”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “novice”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• nocive

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French novice, from Old French novice, borrowed from Late Latin novīcius, novīcia (“one who has newly entered a monastery or a convent”), from Latin novīcius, novītius (“new, newly arrived”), from novus (“new”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɔ.vis/

Noun

novice m or f by sense (plural novices)

1. beginner, novice

Adjective

novice (plural novices)

1. inexperienced

Further reading

• “novice”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norman

Etymology

From Old French novice, borrowed from Late Latin novīcius, novīcia (“one who has newly entered a monastery or a convent”), from Latin novīcius, novītius (“new, newly arrived”), from novus (“new”).

Noun

novice m or f (plural novices)

1. (Jersey) novice

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French novice.

Noun

novice m (plural novici)

1. novice

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	novice	noviceul		novici	novicii
genitive-dative	novice	noviceului		novici	novicilor
vocative	noviceule			novicilor