A noob is a shortened version of the word “newbie.” The first time that the word noob was used was in the 1970s by the United States military to describe soldiers that were just arriving. “They were noobs.” What it refers to is an individual who is inexperienced and therefor a new person to it hence the “newbie.” Since the use of the word has appeared again on the Internet, it has evolved to mean both a tease and an insult.

For example, if two experienced gamers were playing and one said to the other, “Man, you played that game like a noob,” that would be considered teasing, but not mean. However, if it was a game between two players–one experienced and one horrible–and the experienced player said, “Ha, I beat you because you’re a weak noob,” it would be considered an insult.

The word noob has numerous different variations to the word. For example, someone can be a “newb,” a “n00b” where zeros are used for the o, and a “nub.” It is generally accepted that the farther from the word noob one goes, the more insulting they are trying to be. So, calling someone a noob might not be insulting, but calling them a nub can be insulting more often than not.

Understanding that there are people out there that like to target noobs in games, developers have created specific areas of different online games where noobs can congregate to learn the game. It typically helps to realize that everyone was a noob at some point. Overall, everyone has been new to the game and therefore, they are a noob. They simply learned.