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
ruca
(
“
an inexperienced person
”
)
.
rookie
(
plural
rookies
)
- An
inexperienced
recruit
, especially in the
police
or
armed forces
.
- A
novice
.
- An
athlete
either new to the sport or to a team or in his first year of professional competition, especially said of baseball, basketball, hockey and American football players.
- (
British
)
A type of
firecracker
, used by farmers to scare
rooks
.
inexperienced recruit in military or police
novice
- Bulgarian:
но?вак
(bg)
m
(
novak
)
- Czech:
zelena?
,
nova?ek
m
- Dutch:
beginneling
(nl)
m
,
nieuwkomer
(nl)
m
- Finnish:
aloittelija
(fi)
,
noviisi
(fi)
,
keltanokka
(fi)
- French:
bleu
(fr)
m
- Galician:
anovao
m
,
codio
m
,
garamufo
m
- German:
Anfanger
(de)
m
,
Neuling
(de)
m
- Italian:
principiante
(it)
- Macedonian:
нова?ли?а
m
(
novajlija
)
,
новак
m
(
novak
)
- Polish:
?ołtodziob
(pl)
m
- Portuguese:
principiante
(pt)
m
or
f
,
novato
(pt)
m
,
novata
(pt)
f
- Romanian:
boboc
(ro)
m
- Russian:
новичо?к
(ru)
m
(
novi?ok
)
,
(
green
)
зелёный
(ru)
m
(
zeljonyj
)
- Spanish:
novato
(es)
,
novicio
m
,
bisono
(es)
m
- Turkish:
caylak
(tr)
|
athlete new to the sport or to a team
rookie
(
comparative
rookier
,
superlative
rookiest
)
- non-professional;
amateur
- The game was going well until I made that
rookie
mistake.
- the
rookiest
of rookie mistakes
rookie
(
third-person singular simple present
rookies
,
present participle
rookying
,
simple past and past participle
rookied
)
- (
intransitive
)
To be a rookie; to go through one's inexperienced learning period in a job, team, or organization.
2002
,
Smokejumpers
, page
67
:
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.
2009
, Jonathan Kellerman,
Billy Straight
:
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
.
[
…
]
'
2016
, Bill Loomis,
On This Day in Detroit History
, page
89
:
He
rookied
in 1980 and settled in to play right field for the Detroit Tigers from 1983 to 1987 and was critical to the Tigers winning the 1984 World Series against the San Diego Padres.
2019
, Heather West,
Jax: Iron Bandits MC
:
Grath and I had joined the Iron Bandits MC the same year; pledged together,
rookied
together.
- (
transitive
,
chiefly
sports
)
To
haze
one or more rookies as an initiation ritual.
1919
, Harold C. Bloxham, “Training at La Courtine”, in
The History of Battery E, 66th Artillery C. A. C.
, page
86
:
Great was my surprise when I found that I had been "
rookied
" in for a policing-up detail with no chance to "allez."
1947
, National Association of Secondary School Principals,
Bulletin
, page
40
:
There is none of that '
rookying
stuff' but they don't pay any attention to you either, and that is worse.
2002
, Celia Brackenridge, Kari Fasting,
Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Sport
:
I was
rookied
in women's (ice) hockey mid-winter. I was made to strip nude and walk into McDonald's and order a big Mac.
2007
, Kevin Young, Philip White,
Sport and Gender in Canada
, page
313
:
Last year when I was '
rookied'
they had this whole agenda where you had to do a ' shot ' [ of alcohol ] and run around and do this little circuit [ race ] ?the idea was to get everyone to puke that night or just get totally hammered ... the majority of the people [rookies] were knocked out [physically unable to continue] by ten o'clock.
2013
, Curtis Fogel,
Game-Day Gangsters: Crime and Deviance in Canadian Football
, page
59
:
As long as a player is a rookie, they are susceptible to being "
rookied
,” although initiations typically occur at the beginning of the season, or just before.
Unadapted borrowing
from
English
rookie
.
rookie
m
or
f
by sense
(
plural
rookies
)
- rookie
- According to
Royal Spanish Academy
(RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.