turophile means A gourmet/connoisseur of cheese. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
turophile is pronounced /ˈtjʊəɹəfaɪl/.
Why “turophile” is a great word
TUROPHILE — [Noun] A connoisseur or lover of cheese. From the Ancient Greek τυρός (turós, "cheese") + -phile ("lover of"). A modern coinage, attested since the 1930s and popularized by Clifton Fadiman on the American radio and TV quiz show Information Please in 1952. Unlike a gourmet, whose enthusiasm diffuses across all fine food, or a fromager, for whom cheese is a profession, the turophile’s devotion is a focused, scholarly hedonism. It is the thumb testing the give of a ripe Brie, the nose discerning notes of grass and ammonia in a wedge of Stilton, and the reverent ritual of bringing a clothbound cheddar to its perfect peak—a pursuit that finds infinite complexity in the most humble, curdled, and ephemeral of substances.
noun
- A gourmet/connoisseur of cheese.“After all, I’ve spent 15 years following the U.S. cheese scene, first as a lone blogger and now as an author of two cheese books, so I’ve put in my time as a turophile. I don’t let anyone conflate “American cheese” with Kraft Singles—not when there is so much good craft cheese being made stateside. Cheese has come a long way in the U.S. since its production became industrialized in the 1800s, when”