callow
Meaning
-
- Bald, hairless, bare.
- Unfledged (of a young bird), featherless.
- Newly emerged or hatched, juvenile.
- Immature, lacking in life experience.
- Lacking color or firmness (of some kinds of insects or other arthropods, such as spiders, just after ecdysis); teneral.
- Shallow or weak-willed.
- Unburnt.
- Of land: low-lying and liable to be submerged.
Synonyms
flat bog
ignoranta
low level bog
low swampy land
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈkæloʊ/
Etymology
In summary
From Middle English calwe (“bald”), from Old English calu (“bare, bald, callow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kalu, from Proto-Germanic *kalwaz (“bare, naked, bald”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel(H)wo- (“bare, naked, bald”). Cognate with West Frisian keal (“bald”), Dutch kaal (“bald”), German Low German kahl (“bald”), German kahl (“bald”), Swedish kal and kalka (“bald”), Russian го́лый (gólyj, “bare, naked, nude”). Compare similar meaning and similar sounding Latin calvus (“bald”), Finnish kalju (“bald”), Persian کل (kal), and Sanskrit कुल्व (kulvá), which despite close resemblance to the Germanic and Slavic terms are probably false cognates with them, due to Grimm's law.
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Notes