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 *teue- (2) "to swell" (see thigh) on the notion of "a swelling, coagulating") + chemical suffix -ine(2).