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The word newbie is a variant of 'new boy' and comes from British public school and military slang. 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" (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...").
Internet usage of the full spelling of "newbie" has not been as widely used as shortened forms. A common variant, usually use more than actual word, is "n00b" or "noob", in many cases a negative term where it degradingly refers to users who disrupt other users. Other spellings include "newb", "nub", "nooblet", "n00blet", or any version of these written in Leet.
