Silly-how

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The caul which sometimes envelops the top of a child's head after birth. archaic, dialectal

    "Great conceits are raised of the involution or meembranous covering, commonly called the silly-how, that sometimes is found about the heads of children upon their birth, and is therefore preserved with great care […]"

Example

More examples

"Great conceits are raised of the involution or meembranous covering, commonly called the silly-how, that sometimes is found about the heads of children upon their birth, and is therefore preserved with great care […]"

Etymology

From silly, seely + early form of houve.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.