rookie

Meanings

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

1. Non-professional; amateur

1. To be a rookie; to go through one's inexperienced learning period in a job, team, or organization.
2. To haze one or more rookies as an initiation ritual.

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”).