greenhorn

English

Etymology

Unconfirmed. Hypotheses include:

• Middle English greene horn, the horn of a newly slaughtered animal
• From the reference to an animal with green (that is, young) horns
• From 17th century jewellery manufacturing which used decorated horn which was impressed at a specific temperature. If heated too high (a common mistake by apprentices), the horn turned green.

Noun

greenhorn (plural greenhorns)

1. (chiefly US) an inexperienced person; a novice, beginner or newcomer

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:beginner

Derived terms

• greenhornism

Translations

inexperienced person

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 新手 (cmn) (xīnshǒu), 生手 (cmn) (shēngshǒu), 初學者 (cmn), 初学者 (cmn) (chūxúezhě), (disparaging) 菜鳥 (cmn), 菜鸟 (cmn) (càiniǎo)

• Czech: zelenáč (cs) m
• Dutch: melkmuil (nl), vlasbaard (nl)
• Esperanto: flavbekulo (eo)
• Finnish: märkäkorva (fi)
• French: béjaune (fr) m; blanc-bec (fr) m
• German: Grünschnabel (de) m (green beak), Gelbschnabel (de) (yellow beak)
• Hungarian: zöldfülű (hu)
• Italian: pivello (it) m

• Japanese: 初心者 (ja) (しょしんしゃ, shoshinsha), 初学者 (ja) (しょがくしゃ, shogakusha), (disparaging) 青二才 (ja) (あおにさい, aonisai)
• Polish: żółtodziób (pl)
• Portuguese: café com leite (pt)
• Romanian: mucos (ro) m
• Russian: новичок (ru) (novičók) m, новоприбывший (ru) (novopribývšij) m, зелёный (ru) (zeljónyj) m, (disparaging, especially navy) салага (ru) (salága) m and f, (disparaging) молокосос (ru) (molokosós) m
• Spanish: novicio (es) m, aprendiz (es) m and f, novato (es) m, pipiolo (es) m
• Swedish: gröngöling (sv) c
• Turkish: acemi çaylak (tr)