Saturday, September 8, 2007

callow

Dictionary

callow |ˈkalō|

adjective (esp. of a young person)

inexperienced and immature : earnest and callow undergraduates. See notes at gullible, rude, youthful . DERIVATIVES callowly adverb callowness noun ORIGIN Old English calu ‘bald’ ; probably from Latin calvus ‘bald.’ This was extended to mean ‘unfledged,’ which led to the present sense ‘immature.’

Thesaurus

callow adjective she toyed with the emotions of Laughton when he was a callow and insecure young man immature, inexperienced, juvenile, adolescent, naive, green, raw, untried, unworldly, unsophisticated; informal wet behind the ears. See notes at gullible, rude, youthful . antonym mature.

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