Dictionary

calloo en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /kəˈluː/ (UK)

Etymology

Imitative of its call.

Meanings

1. (Scotland) The long-tailed duck, Clangula hyemalis, an Arctic sea duck.
   • The Scots called it the ‘wild calloo’ from the unearthly call it had which seemed almost to bewitch fisher-folk hunting for herring in calm autumn nights off the Scottish Isles. 2012 January 8, Richard Williamson, West Sussex Gazette:
   • This is how the luckless feel / how the calloos [translating allit] think— / like hard snow under a ridge / like water in a deep well. 1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section IV:

Forms