What does callous mean?
Callous is an adjective describing a person or action marked by an unfeeling, insensitive disregard for the suffering of others. A callous remark, decision, or policy treats human pain as unimportant, and the word carries strong moral disapproval — it suggests not mere coldness but a culpable hardness of heart. The term derives from the Latin callosus, meaning thick-skinned, via callosus's root callum, hard skin; the metaphor is apt, since emotional callousness is imagined as a protective layer of deadened feeling built up over time. In modern usage it appears most often in phrases such as 'callous disregard' and 'callous indifference'. A rarer verbal sense, meaning to make hard or unfeeling, survives chiefly in the participle form 'calloused', which also describes physically hardened skin. Callous should be distinguished from the unrelated-sounding but etymologically linked noun callus, the medical term for thickened skin.
Emotionally unfeeling and indifferent to the suffering or distress of others; showing cruel disregard.
"The company's callous treatment of laid-off workers drew widespread criticism."
To make hard or unfeeling; to develop hardened skin. Now rare, surviving mainly in the past participle 'calloused'.
"His hands had become calloused from decades of carpentry."
As a verb, 'callous' is largely obsolete; prefer 'calloused' for physical hardening and avoid the verbal form entirely in formal writing.
The same Latin root gives us both 'callus' — the thick skin on a gardener's hands — and 'callous', the thick skin we grow on our conscience.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of callous
Callous comes from the Latin callosus, 'thick-skinned,' formed from callum, meaning hard or thick skin. It entered English in the late sixteenth century, initially describing physical hardness before acquiring its psychological sense of emotional insensitivity in the seventeenth century. Its closest English relative is the noun callus, the anatomical term for hardened skin or bone-repair tissue, along with the derived noun callosity.
Related word forms
How callous is actually used
'Callous' carries strongly negative connotation and implies not merely indifference but a degree of culpable insensitivity. As a verb it is now uncommon; writers typically use the past participle form 'calloused' instead.
Easily confused with callous
'Callus' is a noun meaning an area of thickened, hardened skin (or the tissue forming over a healing fracture), while 'callous' describes emotional insensitivity; 'callous' also functions rarely as a verb.