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rookie

noun

  1. person new to a level of sport or profession
L326903 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈɹʊki/

adj

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”).

  1. Non-professional; amateur

    The game was going well until I made that rookie mistake.

    the rookiest of rookie mistakes

noun

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”).

  1. An inexperienced recruit, especially in the police or armed forces.

    Corbett is convinced it was a systemic failure: "The Thames Train was driven by a rookie driver who had only just come into the job. It is, in fact, difficult to run through a red light, because you have to cancel the Automatic Warning System (AWS) and so on. But he continued for 700 yards and he accelerated, which no one understands why.

  2. A novice.
  3. 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.
  4. A type of firecracker, used by farmers to scare rooks.

verb

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”).

  1. To be a rookie; to go through one's inexperienced learning period in a job, team, or organization.

    In 1977 he rookied as a smokejumper with the International Forest Fire Systems, a private firm that contracted smokejumping services to Canada's Northwest Territories.

    As they go ton the stretch of road that ran between the park and the 5 Freeway, Stu said 'Schoelkopf gave me the kind of lecture I haven't heard since I rookied. […]'

  2. To haze one or more rookies as an initiation ritual.

    Great was my surprise when I found that I had been "rookied" in for a policing-up detail with no chance to "allez."

    There is none of that 'rookying stuff' but they don't pay any attention to you either, and that is worse.