What does Noob mean?
The word noob comes from the English term "newbie" and it is a derogatory way of indicating that someone is new or a beginner in a game. It is used mostly in gamer circles.
It is also known as noobs, players who have just started and do not have any knowledge about a game or subject. Commonly, veterans say noob to players who do not respect their veteranship.
A noob is also a person who does not improve their skills in a game even after they have been playing it for a while. In addition, it can also be used for those novice players who are not taking the game seriously.
Noob Origin
To discover the origin of noob, or more commonly written n00b or nub, we must go to the 80-90s. Noob is a colloquial way to say newbie. American soldiers call new people coming to their unit or joining the force newbies. This is dated to the 1850s when the US and Australian soldiers started using it.
During the 80s it was used in other fields, but with the popularization of computers and gaming, the word noob was gradually increasing in popularity in the computer and gaming world.
At first, the word was used to describe a player's lack of skill, but today, its most common use is pejorative.
The word noob became more and more popular thanks to games such as Quake, Counter-Strike or World of Warcraft, where competitiveness was at its peak.
In 2006, the word noob was used in South Park, in the episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft", as one of the most recurrent jokes of the episode. This episode was a satire of the video game world.
Noob is a term that has moved beyond the screen and it is used, almost daily, in real life. Many people use it when they want to say that something has gone wrong because they are idiots.
Is Noob a bad word?
Yes and no. At first the word noob was used to describe someone who was unskilled or inexperienced in a game, a beginner. Players today use it mainly to insult newer players and tell them they are very bad or useless.
When it is used as an insult, it doesn't matter if the players have just started playing or not, as it loses its rookie status, and takes on the most negative meaning.
Synonyms of Noob
Here are some of the synonyms of noob:
- Newbie
- Inexpert
- Beginner
- Novice
- Immature
- Bad player
- Useless
- Clumsy
Conclusion
The term noob is used both outside and inside video games to refer to a novice or someone who has little skill in a game or performing an action. It's a word that emerged in the early 1990s and is used more as an insult today.
