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Comment by mv4 | Hacker News Reader

FTA: 'The name Novichok means "newcomer" in Russian'

No it doesn't. Novichok means "amateur, noob". Sigh.

I'm ok with translating is as "noob", but if you want to be nitpicky about semantics, "amateur" would be quite literally "любитель", and absolutely not "новичок". And, yes, "новичок" is 100% literally "newcomer", both etymologically and in all possible meanings it can have in English.

Well, those are mostly the same. Noob (newbie, n00b) comes from newcomer/novice. Amateur I'm not sure how it fits in there. I think BBC is just using the synonym that the most people would understand (newcomer vs noob, everyone gets the first, some will not understand the second)

Amateur is related to latin "amare" = to love, and originally refers to someone that does something for the love of it (unlike a professional, who does it for money or gain). So, an amateur need not be new to a pursuit (or bad at it).

So, it seems to me (as an amateur...) that noob, novice, newcomer are better renderings of "novichok" than amateur.

Etymologically it goes "new" -> "newbie" -> "noob". "Novice" is from latin, and while it does share the same root as "new" it does so way back in proto-Indo-European.

Guessing it was amateur in the derogatory sense.

If you are curious: no, "новичок" is not derogatory. Much less derogatory than a "noob", anyway, and doesn't necessarily mean incompetence. Like, say there is a hiking club with pretty much the same people going on hikes for the last 5 years, and somebody joined this club last week — this person would be called "новичок" in a friendly manner.

So, yeah, "newcomer" is actually a good translation.

I was referring to the context of the translation OP provided, that's all. So—I guess we're in agreement haha.

I'd translate it as "rookie".

It means both. Source: native language.

Not sure about Russian, but contextually 'newcomer' can mean that in English, too.

So it's more like "incompetent newcomer?"

Wouldn't say that the word implies "incompetent". "Kto na noven'kogo" is a known phrase, "noven'kii" is here practically synonym to "novichok", and there is no incompetence - rather novelty.

It means both actually

In this context it should be translated as "novel" with some noun similar to "novel coronovirus".

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