Etymograph

English

tyro

Tyro comes from Medieval Latin tyro, and goes back to Latin tīrō ‘beginner, novice’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtīrō‘beginner, novice’
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500tyro
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1697same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtīrō‘beginner, novice’
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500tyro
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1697same form

Earliest quotation: 1697, John Evelyn, Authors: “I had propos'd to conclude this Inſtitution vvith a…”

The story

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin tyro, and from its etymon Latin tīrō (‘beginner, novice; young apprentice; (Roman military) recruit’); further etymology unknown, possibly from an unattested Etruscan word.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘to rub, turn’

turn, tournament, throw, thread, tragic, threshold, detrimental, trout, detriment, detour, attrition, thrash, tourney, triage, trite, termite, tribulation, detritus, tourniquet, truant, thresher, thresh, derma, 42 more

Today it means

noun A beginner; a novice.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin tīrō / tyro

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