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Keep your English up to date
Newbie
Gavin Dudeney
You might remember seeing two zeros in another word in
this series (w00t!) and that there we saw how online
gamers and chatters often use their own language and
spellings for common words. Newbie (or n00b) is another
word that was made popular by these groups of people.
A newbie is a new member of any community, online game
or web-based activity. It’s a difficult word in that it’s often
hard to tell the sentiment behind its use. In a purely
descriptive way, it simply refers to new members, and
doesn’t entail any kind of judgement on the part of the
user – ‘there will be a meeting for newbies on Thursday to
go over the basics’. However, it is often used in a
derogatory context, with older more experienced members
looking down on new members and finding them a
distraction or an irritation – ‘just ignore the newbies,
they’re not worth the trouble’.
In the derogatory context you might find ‘n00b’ to be more common.
Newbie certainly has more history than this - in Vietnam, new arrivals
were often referred to as newbies, and ‘non-useful bodies’ was the term
given to new sailors on submarines until they had learnt the necessary
skills to contribute to the running of the craft (they were often referred to
as N.U.B.s, or ‘nubes’) – but it is the modern, technology usage which is
most common and most widely-recognised.
A word from the wise – if you’re a n00b, the best thing you can do is
keep your head down and listen for a while. In that respect, online
communities are no different from face-to-face ones. Learning the ropes
is part of becoming a respected member.
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2008
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