"rookie" from "recruit"

[Stephen Goranson]

OED: rookie slang. [Orig uncertain; perh. corruption of recruit n.] OED's earliest quotation is from 1892.

December, 1891 {Google Books 1868 date mistaken], new series vol. LIV, page 87
The Eclectic magazine of foreign literature, science, and art

...they would say it was a lot of raw rookies* who could not be trusted either to draw a sword or spur a horse.

*Recruits.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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