Neophyte is hardly a new addition to the English language—it's been part of the English vocabulary since the 14th century. It traces back through Late Latin to the Greek word neophytos, meaning "newly planted" or "newly converted." These Greek and Latin roots were directly transplanted into the early English uses of neophyte, which first referred to a person newly converted to a religion or cause. By the 1600s, neophyte had gained a more general sense of "a beginner or novice." Today you might consider it a formal elder sibling of such recent informal coinages as newbie and noob.
neophytes are assigned an experienced church member to guide them through their first year
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And this also happens to be the day that the trauma center welcomes a new class of interns and residents, filling the ER with wide-eyed neophytes like Wyle’s John Carter was in the pilot for ER.—Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2025 These neophytes to the Supply Base imagined many technological innovations that have either come to fruition (e.g., remote start) or have flirted with reality (e.g., autonomous driving, flying cars).—Steve Tengler, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2024 This storyline would explain why her return to the company was highlighted on the smaller (and recently canceled) Rampage instead of Dynamite, as the promotion may want to position her as someone who has forgotten her past two years in AEW, effectively starting over as a neophyte.—Andy Biggs, Newsweek, 25 Dec. 2024 This is where the Harris and former Biden team is really supposed to make its money, in a get-out-the-vote competition with relative neophytes on the Republican side.—W. James Antle Iii, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 4 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for neophyte
Word History
Etymology
Middle English neophite, borrowed from Late Latin neophytus, borrowed from Greek neóphytos "newly planted" (in New Testament and patristic Greek, "newly converted, new convert"), from neo-neo- + -phytos, verbal adjective of phýein "to bring forth, produce" — more at be
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