Word of the Day Archive
Monday February 25, 2002
tyro \TY-roh\
, noun:
A beginner in learning; a novice.
It's difficult to imagine a tyro publishing a book on medical procedures or economic theory.
-- Philip Zaleski, "God Help the Spiritual Writer", New York Times, January 10, 1999
He was a sensitive, fine soul alert to the pleasures of being green, a tyro, an amateur, unwilling to close his mind before it had been tempted.
-- Paul West, Sporting With Amaryllis
And, though we were mere tyros, beginners, utterly insignificant, he was invariably as kind and considerate and thoughtful, and as lavish in the gift of his time, as though he had nothing else to do.
-- Leonard Warren, Joseph Leidy: The Last Man Who Knew Everything
Tyro is from Latin tiro, "a young soldier, a recruit," hence "a beginner, a learner."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for tyro
