# Túró



## onsavtasbehalf

Hi there,
On a recent visit to Hungary I found out that Túró is (curd) cheese. I know that Hungarian is not an Indo-European language, yet in Greek τυρί (turi) also means cheese. This sounds too similar to be a coincidence. Do you have any idea if the two words are actually related, or what is the etymology of Túró?
Any help would be very appreciated.
Thanks in advance!


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## franknagy

The Greeks have been in political and commercial  connection with the Hungarians since 1500 years. I can imagine the flow of words and the meal of _τυρί_ (turi) and _túró_ *in both directions*.


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## Zsanna

According to this online Etimological dictionary (see Hungarian Resources Sticky), it is of ancient Turk(ish) origin. (In Turkmenian: turak, etc.)


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## onsavtasbehalf

Thanks for your help! 
Perhaps I'll try asking in the Greek forum for the etymology of _τυρί._


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## Olivier0

The Greek word is the same as Ancient Greek τυρός (turós).
The Hungarian etymological link gives the old Turkish source as *turag, but this was located in Central Asia and not near ancient Greece, so it may be just a fortuitous coincidence.
-- Olivier


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## franknagy

Hello Oliver,
Turks and Greeks were living together in mixed-nationality villages and towns during centuries until the Greek troops suffered a catastrophic defeat in 1922 in Dumlupınar. (After that the so called "exchange of inhabitants" separated them.)

*Despite of religious and cultural hostage the individuals of mixed nations always marry across and learn to make meals from each other.*
The Turkish Empire was attracting the Central Asian Turkish people: masters, intelligence, warriors were seeing more opportunities, rich customers in the capital of the Padishah, ghazi's glory of the Holy War, so they migrated to Anatolia, Istambul and Rumelia. They brought with themselves the _túró_ in their satchels. The Greek merchants saw the demand and began to cook  _τυρί. (Maybe already the Ancient Greek adventurers reached Central Asia. They surely did it in the time of Alexander the Great.)
_RegardsFrank


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## Apollodoros

Hi, I always thought _túró_ was coming from Slavic tvaroh/twaróg/творог (German: Quark - cogntes?) which to me seems as a more natural loan compared to Greek/Turkish. Especially since this is an agricultural product and there are other examples of such loans? Is this not possible at all?


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## Zsanna

I'm not sure... The Hungarian Etimological dictionary doesn't mention any Slavic origin there.
There is a word _túr_ (n.), that gives _túros_ (adj. with a short "o"!) that comes from Slovenian originally meaning a wound appearing on people's bottom from long horse riding or on animals (e.g. horses) from "wearing" some leather outfit (missing the right words there again...) that wears there skin/coat.


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## Olivier0

According to this Russian etymological dictionary, the Slavic words (Proto-Slavic *_tvarogъ_) and the Greek word have a common Indo-European origin with Lithuanian and Avestan (old Iranian) words, but their relationship with Turkic words like _turak_ is not justified because of in-middle vowels (if I understand well with the help of the Google translate tool).
-- Olivier


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