[from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books,
1998] A non-wizard. Not as disparaging as
luser; implies vague pity rather than contempt. In
the universe of Rowling's enormously (and deservedly) popular children's
series, muggles and wizards inhabit the same modern world, but each group
is ignorant of the commonplaces of the others' existence — most
muggles are unaware that wizards exist, and wizards (used to magical ways
of doing everything) are perplexed and fascinated by muggle
artifacts.
In retrospect it seems completely inevitable that hackers would adopt
this metaphor, and in hacker usage it readily forms compounds such as
muggle-friendly. Compare
luser, mundane,
chainik, newbie.
