The terms 'n00b', 'nub', and 'newby' are all over gamer culture, but where did they come from? Did someone just decide we need a general word for someone who is unskilled? Is it a corruption of 'new' or some other word?
How did the term ‘noob’ originate
gaming-historyterminology
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Best Answer
N00b and nub are corruptions of "noob", itself a corruption of "newb", short for "newbie". "Newbie" was in use at least as far back as the BBS era of the 1980s and early 1990s, where it referred to a user who was new to BBSs. It was less of an insult and more friendly than "noob", which was popularized by Counterstrike players in a context where a poor player can ruin the game for others.
Newbie itself is modern slang, where according to Wikipedia it referred to new soldiers in Vietnam. The word's origin before this is unclear, but it appears to be a word created to turn the adjective "new" into a noun, perhaps as a diminutive (Barbara -> Barbie, for example).