What is Neophyte:
The neophyte is called the person who starts a religion. It is also used to indicate individual who recently joined and is part of a communitypolitical ideology or group.
The word neophyte derives from late Latin neophy̆tus, and this in turn from the Greek neophytes. As you can see, the word neophyte is composed of the prefix neo– which means “new” and, phyto which means “plant”. Therefore, it can be said that neophyte refers to something “newly planted.”
Neophyte is a word rarely used in daily vocabulary, so it is customary to use other words that serve as synonyms such as beginner, apprentice, novice, initiated or inexperienced. The opposite of neophyte is expert or veteran.
Following this order of ideas, the word neophyte or neophyte can also be used to refer to the person who is starting or is a beginner in an activity that may be a job, study, musical discipline, sport, reading group, among others.
For example, “Three salsa neophytes enrolled in the dance academy”, “Laura is a neophyte in biochemistry analyses, soon she will be an expert”, “The neophytes are very enthusiastic about starting photography practices”.
On the other hand, formerly in Catholicism was called neophyte to those people who were initiated into the religionFor example, those newly baptized or those recently nominated to be priests.
For this reason, in the Catholic Church the novice was considered the neophyte because he was the individual who was initiated into religious and spiritual life. This person had to learn many religious terms and customs after a trial period called the novitiate.
For example, “My nephew is a neophyte, he received baptism this morning”, “Luis is the new neophyte of the parish church”.
See also Learn.