callow
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkæləʊ/
ipa: /ˈkæloʊ/
rhymes: -æləʊ
Forms: form: callower
form: more callow
form: callowest
form: most callow
Etymology: From Middle English calwe (“(adjective) bald; (noun) bald person”), from Old English calu, caluw (“without hair, bald, callow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kalu, from Proto-Germanic *kalwaz (“bald; bare, naked”), and then either:
* from Proto-Indo-European *gol(H)-wo- (“bald; bare, naked”), from *gelH- (“head; naked”); or
* from Latin calvus (“bald”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kl̥H- (“bald; naked”).
If not borrowed from Latin, Grimm’s law indicates that the Latin word is likely a false cognate, along with Persian کل (kal) and Sanskrit कुल्व (kulvá). Finnish kalju (“bald”), from Proto-Finnic *kaljama, may be borrowed from an unrelated Germanic word meaning “slippery”.
cognates
* Dutch kaal (“bald”)
* German kahl (“bald”)
* German Low German kahl (“bald”)
* Russian го́лый (gólyj, “bare, naked, nude”)
* Swedish kal, kalka (“bald”)
* West Frisian keal (“bald”)
Senses: examples: text: Then there was a little Chinese in full azure costume, with long gesticulating arms, and large callow head, who pertinaciously threw in his squeaky plea for Confucius in the most unsyntactical French.
ref: 1878, A[lfred] Egmont Hake, “Professeurs de Langues”, in Paris Originals, London: C[harles] Egan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, page 25:
text: There was a sense abroad as he spoke that the world was rocking together to great music, and this callow-headed professor by the table had caught a note of it.
ref: 1916 July 1, S. Macnaughton, “Some Elderly People and Their Young Friends. Chapter V.”, in The Living Age, volume III (8th Series; volume CCXC overall), number 3756, Boston, Mass.: The Living Age Company […], →OCLC, page 24, column 2:
text: This time it held a callow-headed baby in a pink frock.
ref: 1944, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art, London; Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers […], →OCLC, page 225, column 1:
text: These hands were marked of hard work and yet soft enough to tenderly hold the baby's little callow head.
ref: 2011, Altea [pseudonym], chapter 3, in Happiness Was a Red Cadillac, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 17:
glosses: Of a person: having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.
topics: business
construction
manufacturing
masonry
glosses: Of a brick: unburnt.
examples: text: […] Calais and Zetes had no beard upon their chin, / They both were callow. But aſſone as haire did once begin / In likeneſſe of a yellow Downe upon their cheekes to ſprout, / Then (euen as comes to paſſe in Birdes) the feathers budded out / Togither on their pinyons too, and ſpreaded round about / On both their ſides.
ref: 1567, Ovid, “The Sixt Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 79, verso:
text: [T]hey [who] be ſomevvhat ſlovv of apprehenſion and idle vvithall, are verie troubleſome unto their teachers, and importune them overmuch: […] reſembling herein young callovv birds vvhich are not yet fethered and fledg'd, but alvvaies gaping tovvard the bill of the damme, and ſo by their good vvils vvould have nothing given them, but that vvhich hath beene chevved and prepared already.
ref: 1603, Plutarch, “Of Hearing”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 63:
text: A Snake of Size immenſe aſcends a Tree, / And in the leafie Summit, ſpy'd a Neſt, / VVhich o'er her Callovv Young, a Sparrovv preſs'd.
ref: 1717, John Dryden, “Book XII. [The Trojan War.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 408:
text: Th' appointed Time / VVith pious Toil fulfill'd, the callovv Young / VVarm'd, and expanded into perfect Life, / Their brittle Bondage break, and come to Light, / A helpleſs Family, demanding Food / VVith conſtant Clamour.
ref: 1728, [James] Thomson, Spring. A Poem, […] A[ndrew] Millar, […]; and G[eorge] Strahan, […], →OCLC, page 34:
text: Her [the desert pelican's] young in the refreshing bath / Sported all wantonness; / Dipt down their callow heads, / Filled the swoln membrane from their plumeless throat / Pendant, […]
ref: 1801, Robert Southey, “The Fifth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume I, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, pages 258–259:
text: [T]he instant the callow brood are fledged, they are driven from the nest, and forced to shift for themselves in the wide world.
ref: 1822, William Hazlitt, “Essay XIV. On Patronage and Puffing.”, in Table-Talk; or, Original Essays, volume II, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Henry Colburn and Co., →OCLC, page 329:
text: When first born it [a kangaroo] is indeed more feeble and incapable of voluntary action of any kind than a callow bird, blind and hairless, covered with a delicate pink skin, through which many of the blood vessels can be distinctly seen, about an inch in length, and no more like the future kangaroo than a mouse—a transparent little gelatinous creature so fragile that it cannot be handled however carefully without danger to its life.
ref: 1883, Arthur Nicols, chapter III, in Zoological Notes on the Structure, Affinities, Habits, and Mental Faculties of Wild and Domestic Animals; […], London: L. Upcott Gill, […], →OCLC, pages 104–105:
text: In fact many of our fresh water fish are somewhat Chinese in their tastes, for I have frequently used, with great success, the callow and hairless young of field-mice as bait for mascalonge, pike, pickerel, bass and sheep'shead; and I have no doubt that the brook trout would readily take the same delicacy.
ref: 1883 January 13, W. T., “The Game Fishes of America. … First Paper.— … The Mascalonge (Esox Nobilior.)”, in William C[harles] Harris, editor, The American Angler, a Weekly Journal of Angling—Brook, River, Lake and Sea-fish Culture, volume III, number 2, New York, N.Y.: The Angler’s Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 20, column 2:
text: [I]ts [the water-vole's] congener of the land (A[gricola] agrestis) breeds in myriads over the adjoining meadows, hollowing out its nest just enough under the sward for its hairless callow young to be clear of the dangerous scythe-blade.
ref: a. 1884 (date written), [Thomas] Mayne Reid, “Introductory. A Naturalist’s Paradise.”, in The Naturalist in Siluria, London: [William] Swan Sonnenschein & Co., […], published 1889, →OCLC, page 5:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
zoology
glosses: Of a young bird, or (part of) its body: having not developed feathers yet; featherless, unfledged; hence, of other animals or their bodies: having no fur or hair; furless, hairless, unfurred.
examples: text: Those three young men are particularly callow youths.
text: Try to remember the kind of September / When you were a tender and callow fellow / Try to remember and if you remember / Then follow
ref: 1960, “Try to Remember”, in Tom Jones (lyrics), Harvey Schmidt (music), The Fantasticks: The Original Cast Album of the Award-winning International Musical, performed by Jerry Orbach (as El Gallo), New York, N.Y.: MGM Records, →OCLC:
text: Bernard, there are only 630 MPs, if one party has just over 300 MPs it forms a government—of that 300, 100 are too old and too silly, 100 are too young and too callow, which leaves just about a hundred MPs to fill 100 government posts.
ref: 1980 March 10, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “The Economy Drive”, in Yes, Minister, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne), London: British Broadcasting Corporation and BBC Worldwide, →OCLC:
text: The restless scrolling, the clammy self-reproach afterwards … we could recognise that as addiction quite easily, but the mathematical mechanism for having created it makes horrible sense ([Jaron] Lanier isn't that interested in culprits, though he finds all of Silicon Valley pretty callow).
ref: 2018 May 30, Zoe Williams, “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier – review”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2025:
text: Barça [FC Barcelona] had frozen. [Trent] Alexander-Arnold saw it, caught Divock Origi's eyes and pinged the perfect cross for a double-take of a winning goal. This was a 20-year-old local lad, product of down the road, out-thinking Barcelona, making them look like callow, pigeon-chested schoolboys.
ref: 2019 May 8, Barney Ronay, “Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2024:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
zoology
glosses: Of a young bird, or (part of) its body: having not developed feathers yet; featherless, unfledged; hence, of other animals or their bodies: having no fur or hair; furless, hairless, unfurred.
Lacking life experience; immature, inexperienced, naive; also, of or relating to something immature or inexperienced.
synonyms: word: green
word: wet behind the ears
word: artless
word: callow
word: childlike
word: clueless
word: credulous
word: dewy-eyed
word: cute
raw_tags: used ironically
word: fleeceable
word: green
word: guileless
word: ingenuous
word: innocent
word: jejune
word: Panglossian
word: Panglossic
word: quaint
raw_tags: used ironically
word: simple
word: simple-hearted
word: simple-minded
word: starry-eyed
word: unaffected
word: undesigning
word: unpretentious
word: unsophisticated
word: untested
word: unworldly
word: wide-eyed
word: immature
word: born yesterday
word: wet behind the ears
word: virgin
antonyms: word: experienced
word: childish
examples: text: a callow bee
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: In the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.
topics: biology
entomology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: Synonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”).
synonyms: word: teneral
extra: (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”)
examples: text: [T]heſe Lands are not ſvvardy enough to bear clean tillage, nor callovv or light enough to lie to get ſvvard, […]
ref: 1677, Rob[ert] Plot, “Of Arts”, in The Natural History of Oxford-shire, Being an Essay toward the Natural History of England, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Sheldonian] Theater […], →OCLC, paragraph 66, page 243:
glosses: Of land: having no vegetation; bare.
Derived terms: word: callowly
word: callowness
word: callowy
word: encallow
word: encallowing
word: uncallow