[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by 13lackGu4rd

first of all the N word is the same word as the 1 in Latin. second of all the English language has its roots within Latin, so saying it's a different language isn't entirely correct. third of all the "invention" of the N word came from the Latin language, like many other English words, so I really don't understand why you claim it's a "bad example".

1) Its not the same word. The spelling is different to start with, and the meanings are different. It does not simply mean 'black' in english, as in the color. The english slang word is certainly derived from the latin word, but one word arising from another in etymology is different from them being the same thing.
2) Latin is a different language than english. It has different rules on grammar. It has a different vocabulary. This isn't even disputable.
3) Just because a number of words came to English from Latin does not make them the same language. Otherwise English would also be the same language as German, Swedish, Spanish, French, various Native American tongues, and so on. Which would make all those languages the same language (law of identity). As this is clearly false, so is your claim.
4) My point has been and still is that 'Newbie' and 'N00b' are alternate spellings of the same exact word. Not derived from the same word - they are the same word. 'Newbie' also gets spelled as 'Newbee' - it doesn't have a well-defined spelling, because its a slang term. When spoken they are pronounced identically, the spellings are merely different renderings of the same phonemes by people rendering a slang term in text. Different spellings do not make them different words. Its like the alternate renderings Beijing and Peking for the Chinese city - they're the same word, just different spellings based on different romanizations (alphabet-sound associations) of the chinese characters.

how is it better you ask? well, lets see... there is a second meaning, that's a fact. you haven't come across it, and you decide that this meaning doesn't exist. it reminds me of the cliche that you don't believe anything you don't see with your own eyes, and I hope I don't need to tell you how foolish and unrealistic that cliche is... so why is my definition better? because I'm not ignoring the context in which the term is used, unlike what you seem to be doing... but hey, I don't blame you, too many people seem to be unaware of this differentiation thus think it doesn't exist, while the people those terms are used on do feel insulted by the wrong usage of the term, just like blacks are offended by the N word despite it simply meaning the color black...

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The N word has never meant the color black in english. This is why your example was and continues to be bad.

You are ignoring the historical context in which the spelling developed on the internet, possibly because you were not online anywhere near the time (most people weren't). You are ignoring the context in which both spellings are used derogatorily. (I'd post some data, but my google search terms would be censored by the forums... Needless to say 'newbie' seems to get as much venomous treatment as 'n00b'). And you are ignoring the context of this community in which neither spelling is thrown around in a derogatory manner generally, nor was it used so in the OP.

Some communities may have arbitrarily assigned different meanings to one spelling or another. This is not those communities. There exist other communities where both or neither are considered derogatory. The point still stands they are the same word, and that neither has particularly derogatory connotations in this community.