callow

Meaning

Adj

1. Of a person: having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.
2. Of a brick: unburnt.
3. 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.
4. (figuratively) 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.
5. (broadly) In the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.
6. (broadly) Synonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”).
7. (obsolete) Of land: having no vegetation; bare.

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) 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. (countable, uncountable) An alluvial flat.
3. (UK, archaic, countable, regional, uncountable) The upper layer of rubble in a quarry which has to be removed to reach the material to be mined.
4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) A young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.
5. (countable, figuratively, obsolete, uncountable) A young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.
6. (East-Anglia, countable, obsolete, uncountable) Synonym of topsoil (“upper layer of soil”).

Noun

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

Opposite of

experienced, childish

Synonyms

inexperienced

unfledged

immature

verdant

bald

green

featherless

unpractised

fledgling

juvenile

leafless

raw

tenderfoot

unpracticed

unripe

unskilled

unversed

wingless

young

youthful

branchless

Green

flat bog

impuberal

ignoranta

low level bog

apterous

low swampy land

bare

greenhorn

green light

hairless

inexpert

infinite

innumerable

junior

Translations

imaturo

basık

άπειρος

immaturo

sin experiencia

πρωτόβγαλτος

άπτερος

chauve

inexpérimenté

ungefiedert

unreif

onervaren

inexperiente

tecrübesiz

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈkæloʊ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: calwe

Inherited from Old English: calu

Cognate with Western Frisian: keal

Cognate with Dutch: kaal

Cognate with German: kahl

Cognate with Swedish: kal

Cognate with Russian: го́лый

In summary

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”)