callow

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæləʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkæloʊ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æləʊ
• Hyphenation: cal‧low

From Middle English calwe (“(adjective) bald; (noun) bald person”),^[1] from Old English calu, caluw (“without hair, bald, callow”),^[2] from Proto-West Germanic *kalu, from Proto-Germanic *kalwaz (“bald; bare, naked”), and then either:^[3]

• 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”.

callow (comparative callower or more callow, superlative callowest or most callow)

1. Of a person: having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.
   • 1878, A[lfred] Egmont Hake, “Professeurs de Langues”, in Paris Originals, London: C[harles] Egan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, page 25:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1944, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art, London; Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers […], →OCLC, page 225, column 1:

     This time it held a callow-headed baby in a pink frock.

   • 2011, Altea [pseudonym], chapter 3, in Happiness Was a Red Cadillac, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 17:

     These hands were marked of hard work and yet soft enough to tenderly hold the baby's little callow head.

2. (masonry) Of a brick: unburnt.
3. (zoology)
   1. (ornithology) 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.
      • 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:

        […] 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.

        Describing the Boreads, the twin sons of Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind. In some stories, Calaïs and Zetes have wings and are able to fly.

      • 1603, Plutarch, “Of Hearing”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 63:

        [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.

      • 1717, John Dryden, “Book XII. [The Trojan War.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 408:

        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.

      • 1728, [James] Thomson, Spring. A Poem, […] A[ndrew] Millar, […]; and G[eorge] Strahan, […], →OCLC, page 34:

        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.

        Describing birds.

      • 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:

        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, […]

      • 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:

        [T]he instant the callow brood are fledged, they are driven from the nest, and forced to shift for themselves in the wide world.

      • 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:

        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.

      • 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:

        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.

      • 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:

        [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.

      1. (figurative) Lacking life experience; immature, inexperienced, naive; also, of or relating to something immature or inexperienced.

         Synonyms: green, wet behind the ears; see also Thesaurus:naive

         Antonyms: experienced; see also Thesaurus:mature

         Those three young men are particularly callow youths.

         • 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:

           Try to remember the kind of September / When you were a tender and callow fellow / Try to remember and if you remember / Then follow

         • 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:

           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.

         • 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^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 June 2025:

           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).

         • 2019 May 8, Barney Ronay, “Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 September 2024:

           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.

   2. (by extension)
      1. In the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.

         a callow bee

      2. (entomology) Synonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”).
4. (obsolete) Of land: having no vegetation; bare.
   • 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:

     [T]heſe Lands are not ſvvardy enough to bear clean tillage, nor callovv or light enough to lie to get ſvvard, […]

callow (countable and uncountable, plural callows)

1. (entomology) Synonym of teneral (“an insect or other arthropod such as a spider which has just undergone ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”) and so lacks colour or firmness”).
2. (geology) An alluvial flat.
3. (UK, regional, mining, archaic) The upper layer of rubble in a quarry which has to be removed to reach the material to be mined.
4. (obsolete)
   1. (ornithology) A young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.
      1. (figurative) A person lacking life experience; an immature or naive person.
   2. (East Anglia) Synonym of topsoil (“upper layer of soil”).

From Irish caladh (“meadow by a riverbank; land, shore (as opposed to the sea); landing place; port”), from Old Irish calad (“shore; landing place; port”), probably a noun use of calad (“hard”, adjective), from Proto-Celtic *kaletos (“cruel; hard; strong”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlH-eto- (“cold”) (in the sense of something frozen and thus hard), from an unclear root *ḱl(H)- or *kl(H)- (“hard”);^[4] or related to Proto-Germanic *halluz (“boulder, rock, stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to cut, hew”).

callow (comparative more callow, superlative most callow)

1. (Ireland) Of land: low-lying and near a river, and thus regularly submerged.
   • 1811 February 26 (date written), Thomas Townsend, “Appendix, No. 7. The Report of Mr. Thomas Townsend; in District No. 6. [No. 5. Details of Particular Bogs.]”, in J. Leslie Foster [et al.], The Second Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Enquire into the Nature and Extent of the Several Bogs in Ireland, and the Practicability of Draining and Cultivating them. […], [Dublin]: […] [Graisberry and Campbell?], published 1 April 1811, →OCLC, page 192:

     The Bogs that extend along the western part of this District do not lie close to the Shannon, as those on the east side do along the banks of the Inny; they are separated from the river by a long tract of high, dry, callow land, subject, immediately near the river, to being overflowed in winter, but affording meadow, pasture, and in some places good arable land.

callow (plural callows)

2. (Ireland) A low-lying meadow near a river which is regularly submerged.

   Synonyms: flood meadow, water meadow

   Near-synonyms: bog, fen, marsh, swamp, mire, moor, slough

   • 1862, Henry Coulter, chapter I, in The West of Ireland: Its Existing Condition, and Prospects, Dublin: Hodges & Smith, […]; London: Hurst & Blackett, […]; Edinburgh; London: W[illia]m Blackwood & Sons, →OCLC, page 6:

     The crops of hay carried off by the floods, or rendered utterly valueless, were not the only losses sustained by the landholders. The extensive callows upon which they grazed their cattle during the autumn and early winter, were unavailable this season.

• callow (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “callow”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• low-cal