different between greenhorn vs tyro

English

Etymology

Unconfirmed. Hypotheses include:

• Middle English grene horne, the horn of a newly slaughtered animal
• From the reference to an animal with green (that is, young) horns
• From 17th-century jewellery manufacturing, which used decorated horn impressed at a specific temperature. If heated too high (a common mistake by apprentices), the horn turned green.
• From a misappropriation of the German expression "grün hinter den Ohren" (to be green behind the ears).

Noun

greenhorn (plural greenhorns)

1. (chiefly US) an inexperienced person; a novice, beginner or newcomer

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:beginner

Derived terms

• greenhornism

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• tiro

Etymology

From Latin t?ro (“young soldier, recruit”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ta????/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?ta??o?/

Noun

tyro (plural tyros or tyroes)

1. A beginner; a novice. [from 17th c.]
   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man:

     I ask if in the calm of their measured reveries, if in the deep meditations which fill their hours, they fill the ecstasy of a youthful tyro in the school of pleasure.

   • 1857, The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville, included in The Portable North American Indian Reader, New York: Penguin Books, 1977, page 525,

     Master of that woodland-cunning enabling the adept to subsist where the tyro would perish...

   • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer in Darkness, chapter 5:

     The text, though, was marvellously accurate for a tyro’s work; and I concluded that Akeley must have used a machine at some previous period—perhaps in college.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 171:

     Alliance with the equally youthful Jean-le-Rond d'Alembert, tyro mathematician of genius and darling of the Parisian salons, led to the two men commissioning articles for the new venture straight away [...].

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:beginner

Related terms

• tyrociny
• tirocinium

Translations

Anagrams

• Tory, Troy, ryot, tory, troy