callow
/ˈkæloʊ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.46 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Immature, inexperienced, or naive.
adj
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.
adj
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 Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "This time it held a callow-headed baby in a pink frock."
- "These hands were marked of hard work and yet soft enough to tenderly hold the baby's little callow head."
- "[…] 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."
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”)
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkæloʊ/
- British English: /ˈkæləʊ/
Usage
- Obsolete
- Countable
- Uncountable
- British usage
- Archaic
Inflected Forms
callower (comparative)
more callow (comparative)
callowest (superlative)
most callow (superlative)
callows (plural)