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callow

adj
/ˈkæləʊ/UK/ˈkæloʊ/US

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”)

  1. derived from *kl̥H-✻ — “bald; naked”
  2. derived from calvus — “bald”
  3. inherited from *kalwaz✻ — “bald; bare, naked”
  4. inherited from *kalu✻
  5. inherited from calu
  6. inherited from calwe — “(adjective) bald; (noun) bald person”

Definitions

  1. Of a person

    Of a person: having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.

    • 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.

  2. Of a brick

    Of a brick: unburnt.

  3. Of a young bird, or (part of) its body

    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.

    • 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.
  4. ›+ 10 more definitions

    1. In the life cycle of an animal

      In the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.

      • a callow bee

    2. Synonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders

      Synonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”).

    3. Of land

      Of land: having no vegetation; bare.

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

    4. Synonym of teneral (“an insect or other arthropod such as a spider which has just…

      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”).

    5. An alluvial flat.

    6. The upper layer of rubble in a quarry which has to be removed to reach the material to be…

      The upper layer of rubble in a quarry which has to be removed to reach the material to be mined.

    7. A young bird which has not developed feathers yet

      A young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.

    8. Synonym of topsoil (“upper layer of soil”).

    9. A low-lying meadow near a river which is regularly submerged.

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

    10. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for callow. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA