Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 21, 2024 is: neophyte \NEE-uh-fyte\ noun A neophyte is a person who has just started learning or doing something. // As an acting neophyte, Femi took a while to adjust to his newfound Hollywood fame. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neophyte) Examples: "First premiering in 2006, Ugly Betty … built up a devoted fanbase. The series, which is now streaming on Netflix, starred Ferrera as the titular 'Ugly' Betty Suarez, a braces-wearing 22-year-old fashion neophyte from Queens." — Alec Bojalad, Den of Geek, 4 Aug. 2023 Did you know? 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](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/newbie) and [noob](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noob).