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.

The word newbie is a variant of 'new boy' and comes from British public school and military slang[citation needed]. 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. 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...").

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