Etymology dictionary

tyrannosaurus (n.) — Tyrrhenian (adj.)

tyrannosaurus (n.)

carnivorous Cretaceous bipedal dinosaur, 1905, Modern Latin genus name, coined by H.F. Osborn (published 1906 in "Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History" XXI, p.259) from Greek tyrannos "tyrant" (see tyrant) + -saurus. Abbreviated name T. rex attested by 1970 (apparently first as the band name).

tyrant (n.)

c. 1300, "absolute ruler," especially one without legal right; "cruel, oppressive ruler," from Old French tiran, tyrant (12c.), from Latin tyrannus "lord, master, monarch, despot," especially "arbitrary ruler, cruel governor, autocrat" (source also of Spanish tirano, Italian tiranno), from Greek tyrannos "lord, master, sovereign, absolute ruler unlimited by law or constitution," a loan-word from a language of Asia Minor (probably Lydian); Klein compares Etruscan Turan "mistress, lady" (surname of Venus).

Originally in Greek the word was not applied to old hereditary sovereignties (basileiai) and despotic kings, but it was used of usurpers, even when popular, moderate, and just (such as Cypselus of Corinth), however it soon became a word of reproach in the usual modern sense. The unetymological spelling with -t arose in Old French by analogy with present-participle endings in -ant. Fem. form tyranness is recorded from 1590 (Spenser); Medieval Latin had tyrannissa (late 14c.).

tyre (n.)

variant spelling of tire (n.), chiefly British English.

Tyrian (adj.)

1510s, from Latin Tyrius "of Tyre," (Latin Tyrus), island-city in the Levant, from Greek Tyros, from Hebrew/Phoenician tzor, literally "rock, rocky place." Especially in reference to Tyrian purple, a dye chemically similar to indigo, made there in ancient times from certain mollusks (Murex brandaris).

tyro (n.)

"a beginner in learning anything," 1610s, from Medieval Latin tyro, variant of Latin tiro (plural tirones) "young soldier, recruit, beginner," of unknown origin. Glossed in Ælfric's vocabulary by Old English iungwiga.

Tyrol

German Tirol, ultimately from Celtic tir "land" (see Tyrone). Related: Tyrolean.

Tyrone

Irish county, from Irish Tir Eoghain "Eoghan's Land," from Eoghan "Owen," ancestor of the O'Neills, who owned land here. Tir also forms the final syllable in Leinster, Munster, Ulster.

tyrosine (n.)

white, crystalline amino acid, 1857, coined 1846 by German chemist Justus von Liebig (1803-1873), who had first obtained it a year before from the products of a fusion of old cheese and potash, from Greek tyros "cheese" (from PIE *tu-ro-, from root *teue- "to swell") on the notion of "a swelling, coagulating") + chemical suffix -ine (2).

Tyrrhenian (adj.)

1650s, "pertaining to the Etruscans," from Latin Tyrrheni, from Greek Tyrrenoi "Tyrrhenians," from tyrsis "tower, walled city" (cognate with Latin turris "tower"). Earlier Tyrrhene (late 14c.).