callow

adj

Etymology: From Irish caladh (“meadow by a riverbank”), from Old Irish calad (“shore, landing, port”), probably a noun use of calad (“hard”, adjective), from Proto-Celtic *kaletos (“cruel; hard; strong”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlH-eto- (“cold”) (in the sense of something frozen and thus hard), from an unclear root *ḱl(H)- or *kl(H)- (“hard”); or related to Proto-Germanic *halluz (“boulder, rock, stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to cut, hew”).

1. Of land: low-lying and near a river, and thus regularly submerged.

   “The Bogs that extend along the western part of this District do not lie close to the Shannon, as those on the east side do along the banks of the Inny; they are separated from the river by a long tract of high, dry, callow land, subject, immediately near the river, to being overflowed in winter, but affording meadow, pasture, and in some places good arable land.”

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Irish caladh (“meadow by a riverbank”), from Old Irish calad (“shore, landing, port”), probably a noun use of calad (“hard”, adjective), from Proto-Celtic *kaletos (“cruel; hard; strong”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlH-eto- (“cold”) (in the sense of something frozen and thus hard), from an unclear root *ḱl(H)- or *kl(H)- (“hard”); or related to Proto-Germanic *halluz (“boulder, rock, stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to cut, hew”).

1. A low-lying meadow near a river which is regularly submerged.

   “Near-synonyms: bog, fen, marsh, swamp, mire, moor, slough”

   “The crops of hay carried off by the floods, or rendered utterly valueless, were not the only losses sustained by the landholders. The extensive callows upon which they grazed their cattle during the autumn and early winter, were unavailable this season.”