the.com/newcomer
Proof that everyone was once the one who didn't know where the mugs were kept.
means Someone who has only just arrived in a place, group, or situation and hasn't yet learned its ropes.
from A plain compound of 'new' plus 'comer' — one who comes. 'Comer' is simply 'come' plus the agentive suffix '-er', the same pattern that turns 'sing' into 'singer'. It's been assembling itself in English since at least the medieval period, with no hidden story — just two honest pieces fitted together to name the person still fumbling for the mugs.
- earliest use
- Traced to 15th-century English texts
- literal sense
- One who newly comes, nothing more mystical
- bureaucratic cousin
- Immigration law still uses it formally today
- irony
- Every veteran was once this exact person