Amateur is related to latin "amare" = to love, and originally refers to someone that does something for the love of it (unlike a professional, who does it for m

Amateur is related to latin "amare" = to love, and originally refers to someone that does something for the love of it (unlike a professional, who does it for money or gain). So, an amateur need not be new to a pursuit (or bad at it). So, it seems to me (as an amateur...) that noob, novice, newcomer are better renderings of "novichok" than amateur.