Silhouette

Silhouette

Noun & Verb · /ˌsɪluˈɛt/ · a dark outline against a lighter background

Definition

A silhouette is the dark shape and outline of something visible against a brighter background — a figure seen against a sunset, a skyline against a pale dawn, a hand against a lamp. As a verb, to silhouette means to cause something to appear as a dark shape against a contrasting background. The word also refers historically to the art of cut-paper portrait profiles, popular in eighteenth-century Europe before photography made cheap portraiture possible. In design, photography, and everyday language, a silhouette is the essential shape of a thing stripped of all detail except its outline.

Origin

Silhouette is one of the few English words derived from a real historical person's name. Étienne de Silhouette was the French Finance Minister under Louis XV in 1759. He was so aggressively frugal with public money — and became so synonymous with cheapness and minimalism — that his name became attached to cut-paper profile portraits, which were the cheapest possible way to have a likeness made. A silhouette portrait cost almost nothing. A painted portrait cost a great deal. So the name of a penny-pinching minister became the word for the cheapest shadow image of a person. The irony has endured for two and a half centuries.