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Friday July 10, 2009

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callow [KAL-oh]

adjective

1. Immature; inexperienced having not reached adulthood.

• When George first joined the Quarrymen - the precursor of the Beatles - in 1958, he was just 15, possibly only 14 (no one knows the exact date), the youngest and least mature member of the skiffle group. He idolised John. John was the macho, dominant, strutting leader. George the callow boy.
  Hunter Davies, "THE WEEK IN BOOKS: George Harrison's teenage angst, and the other nominee for Oxford poetry professor", The Guardian, May 16, 2009
• The trick works like a charm. Luisa and Matt (Alison Woods and "High School Musical" heartthrob Lucas Grabeel) are nuts about each other. They're also callow and narcissistic ("Oh God, don't make me be normal," Luisa pleads after a bout of self-admiration in front of the mirror).
  Paul Hodgins, "'Fantasticks' delivers on bigger stage; Jason Alexander directs a well-cast and charming production at Reprise", Orange County Register, May 8, 2009
• "The law doth not permit a child to make or meddle in any weighty matter, good my liege, holding that its callow wit unfitteth it to cope with the riper wit and evil schemings of them that are its elders"
  Mark Twain (1835-1910) American author and humorist. The Prince and The Pauper, Part 5 (1881)

Origin of the Word

Callow, approximately 1580, derives from Old English calu "bare, bald".