Word: callow Part of Speech: adj 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). 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”) Pronunciation: /ˈkæləʊ/, /ˈkæloʊ/ 1. Immature, inexperienced, or naive. Example: Through both the volumes, there is not a single original sentiment, description, or incident, and yet a callow reader may peruse it without perceiving any thing is wanting. 2. having no hair; bald, bare, hairless. Example: 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. Example: 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. 3. Of a brick: unburnt. 4. 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. Example: […] 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. Example: [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. 5. 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. Labels: figuratively Example: Those three young men are particularly callow youths. Example: Try to remember the kind of September / When you were a tender and callow fellow / Try to remember and if you remember / Then follow 6. In the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile. Labels: broadly Example: a callow bee 7. Synonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”). Labels: broadly 8. Of land: having no vegetation; bare. Labels: obsolete Example: [T]heſe Lands are not ſvvardy enough to bear clean tillage, nor callovv or light enough to lie to get ſvvard, […]