rookie
/ˈɹʊki/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms rookies rookier rookiest rookying rookied
- noun An inexperienced recruit, especially in the police or armed forces.
- noun A novice.
- noun An athlete either new to the sport or to a team or in his/her first year of professional competition, especially said of baseball, basketball, hockey and American football players.
- noun (UK) A type of firecracker, used by farmers to scare rooks.
- adjective Non-professional; amateur “The game was going well until I made that rookie mistake.”
- verb (intransitive) To be a rookie; to go through one's inexperienced learning period in a job, team, or organization.
- verb (transitive, chiefly sports) To haze one or more rookies as an initiation ritual.
Synonyms
Etymology
Thought to be an alteration of recruit + -ie, or from rook (“a cheat”) + -ie. Another possible origin is Dutch broekie (short for broekvent (“a boy still in short trousers”)), a common term for a shipmate. Also suggested is Irish rúca (“an inexperienced person”).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “rookie”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details