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The Connection Between Callow and Baldness
Although callow birds—that is, featherless, baby birds—are quite visibly (and audibly) hungry for the world beyond their nest, they are just as visibly immature, far from ready to step, or hop, into it. This meaning of callow isn’t common (we only define the word this way in our Unabridged dictionary), but it both links the word directly to its origin, the Old English word calu, meaning “bald,” and to today’s more common use in describing someone possessed of youthful naiveté. Calu eventually fledged into callow with the same “bald, hairless” meaning, but was applied to bald land too—that is, land denuded of vegetation or not producing it in the first place. By the 16th century, callow had expanded beyond the literal sense of “lacking hair or flora” to its avian use of “lacking feathers” as well as to today’s familiar application to people. Callow now is most often used to suggest the inexperience or immaturity of young people brimming with confidence but still, figuratively, unfledged.
Synonyms
Examples of callow in a Sentence
Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Oct. 2023
He was hardly callow.
—Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2020
These comments expressed the callow moral vanity at the core of EA.
—Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 16 Nov. 2022
No longer a brash, callow youth, Mitchell, with his still-eager grin, shows the furrows of age and experience — and the moral sincerity of Cruise’s memorable late performances, especially Minority Report and The War of the Worlds.
—Armond White, National Review, 27 May 2022
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Dictionary Entries Near callow
Cite this Entry
“Callow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/callow. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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