Word Confusion: Callous versus Callus

Revised as of
1 Nov 2022

This confusion between callous and callus has certainly had me confused, as both refer to a hardening.

The figurative callous meaning a person who is less sensitive, hardened, someone with a lack of feeling and is similar to the literal callus, which is caused by friction or irritation over a period of time, leaving the irritated area less sensitive to the touch or having a lack of feeling.

So, you can see the difficulty. Whichever spelling you choose, don’t mix them up and do be consistent.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Callous	Callus
Pollice Verso by Jean-Léon Gérôme is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, and courtesy of the Phoenix Art Museum. — The audience is quite callous about the fate of the defeated.	My Feet After Hiking, 16 July 2007, Zermatt, by Bossi is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr. — Yep, you’ll get calluses if you don’t break your hiking boots in first.
Part of Grammar:
Adjective; Verb Third person present verb: callouses Past tense or past participle: calloused Present participle: callousing Alternate spelling: callus	Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: calluses Gerund: callusing Third person present verb: calluses Past tense or past participle: callused Present participle: callusing Alternate spelling: callous
Adjective: Showing or having an insensitive and cruel disregard for others Made hard Hardened Insensitive Indifferent Unsympathetic Having a callus Indurated, as parts of the skin exposed to friction Verb: To make or become callous	Noun: A thickened and hardened part of the skin or soft tissue, especially in an area that has been subjected to friction [Medicine] The bony healing tissue which forms around the ends of broken bone [Botany] A hard formation of tissue, especially new tissue formed over a wound Verb, intransitive: To form callus Verb, transitive: To cause callus to form on
Examples:
Adjective: He is a callous man. His callous comments about the murder made me shiver. They have a callous attitude toward the sufferings of others. Governments have a callous indifference to suffering. “But, indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on” (Stevenson). Verb: His hands were calloused by hard manual labor. The long marches calloused the soldier’s feet.	Noun: In these areas, the skin often thickens into a callus, which, when excessive, can lead to an ulcer. According to them, the genome of the ostrich has the ability to let the skin form calluses when the skin is abraded. But Mrs Ruthven warns the fad could lead to corns, bunions, calluses, claw toes, hammer toes — even arthritis and lower back problems. In the course of time, the callus is smoothed off and eventually the bone returns to its normal thickness. It normally takes one to two weeks for a callus to form, then about six weeks for the bone fragments to unite. When a patch of bark is removed from a tree the wound is healed by the formation of a callus which differentiates into periderm. The present paper describes the formation of surface callus on stem wounds of lime trees as observed by light and electron microscopy. Verb, intransitive: Your hands will callus with time. Verb, transitive: The long marches callused the soldier’s feet.
Derivatives:
Adjective: calloused, uncallous Adverb: callously, uncallously Noun: callousing, callousness	Adjective: callose, callused, uncallused Noun: callose, callosity
History of the Word:
Late Middle English (in the Latin sense) is from the Latin callosus meaning hard-skinned.	Mid-16th century, from the Latin callus (more commonly callum) meaning hardened skin.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan…which words are your pet peeves?

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Resources for Callous vs Callus

Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.

Apple Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com: callous

Merriam-Webster: callous, callus

Perlman, Merrill. “The Difference Between ‘Callus’ and ‘Callous’.” Columbia Journalism Review.org. 30 July 2018. Web. 12 Jan 2020. <https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/callus-callous.php>.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. Grapevine, 2019. <https://amzn.to/3Nnp5Cp>.

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Pinterest Photo Credits:

Needs Pain Pills, <https://visualhunt.com/f3/photo/102196992/05db489bb4/>, by “CAVE CANEM”, <https://visualhunt.co/a4/e28db25f>, is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license (the area code was removed) and Extreme Closeup Heels by HeelsandFeet, <https://visualhunt.com/f3/photo/431575336/8c364165fe/>, is under the CC BY 2.0 license. The background was removed and a shadow added. Both are via VisualHunt.com.