different between callow vs unacquainted

English

Etymology

From Middle English calwe (“bald”), from Old English calu (“callow, bare, bald”), from Proto-Germanic *kalwaz (“bare, naked, bald”), from Proto-Indo-European gel(H)wo- (“naked, bald”). Cognate with West Frisian keal (“bald”), Dutch kaal (“bald”), German kahl (“bald”), Russian ?????? (gólyj, “nude”), Latin calvus (“bald”), Persian ??? (kal), Sanskrit ????? (kulvá).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?kælo?/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kal??/
• Rhymes: -æl??

Adjective

callow (comparative callower or more callow, superlative callowest or most callow)

1. Unfledged (of a young bird).
2. (by extension) Immature, lacking in life experience.

   Antonyms: mature, experienced
3. Lacking color or firmness (of some kinds of insects or other arthropods, such as spiders, just after ecdysis); teneral.
4. Shallow or weak-willed.
5. (of a brick) Unburnt.
6. Of land: low-lying and liable to be submerged.
7. (obsolete) Bald.

Translations

Noun

callow (countable and uncountable, plural callows)

1. A callow young bird.
2. A callow or teneral phase of an insect or other arthropod, typically shortly after ecdysis, while the skin still is hardening, the colours have not yet become stable, and as a rule, before the animal is able to move effectively.
3. An alluvial flat.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “callow”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• low-cal

English

Etymology

From un- +? acquainted.

Adjective

unacquainted (comparative more unacquainted, superlative most unacquainted)

1. Not acquainted, unfamiliar (with someone or something).
   • 1563, Arthur Golding (translator), The Historie of Leonard Aretine concerning the Warres betwene the Imperialles and the Gothes for the Possession of Italy, London: George Bucke, Book 1, Chapter 10, p. 38,^[1]

     The Romains vnacquainted with such perills, wold not endure the hasard of the siege.

   • 1705, William Dampier, Voyages and Descriptions, London: James Knapton, Volume 2, “Voyages to the Bay of Campeachy,” Chapter 1, p. 26,^[2]

     […] from our Main-top we saw the Islands to the Southward of us, and being unacquainted, knew not whether we might find among them a Channel to pass through […]

   • 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, Chapter 20,^[3]

     “ […] Were my mother to see you—to know you, I am sure she would approve; but you are unacquainted personally, and the ancient feud between the families—”

   • 1970, Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1971, Chapter 1, p. 11,^[4]

     To commonplace actions he brought a special pedantic awkwardness. In Poland, France, England, students, young gentlemen of his time, had been unacquainted with kitchens. Now he did things that cooks and maids had once done.

2. (obsolete) Not usual; unfamiliar; strange.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 1, Canto 5, p. 66,^[5]

     Who when she saw Duessa sunny bright,

     Adornd with gold and iewels shining cleare,

     She greatly grew amazed at the sight,

     And th’vnacquainted light began to feare:

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act V, Scene 2,^[6]

     […] [we] fill up

     Her enemies’ ranks,—I must withdraw and weep

     Upon the spot of this enforced cause,—

     To grace the gentry of a land remote,

     And follow unacquainted colours here?

Translations

References

• unacquainted in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• unacquainted in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.