Meaning

noun the period during which you are a novice (especially in a religious order)

noun someone who has entered a religious order but has not taken final vows

originFirst attested in 1517; either borrowed from Middle French noviciat, novitiat or from Medieval Latin noviciātus, novitiātus (“a novitiate”), from Latin novicius, novitius + -ātus (see -ate (forming nouns denoting a rank or office)), from novus (“new”). Sense 1 is not attested in cognates.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0