n. 轮廓,剪影
vt. 使…照出影子来;使…仅仅显出轮廓
n. (Silhouette)人名;(法)西卢埃特
silhouette 侧影,剪影,轮廓
来自 18 世纪欧洲七年战争时期的法国财务部长 Etienne de Silhouette,因在战争时期实施紧缩 的财政政策而遭到过惯了奢靡生活的其它贵族的愤恨,因而引申该词义。同时,也有另一种 观点认为是因该财务部长用类似剪影图片装饰自家城堡而得名。
Silhouette portraits were so called simply because they came into fashion in the year (1759) in which M. de Silhouette was minister. [A. Brachet, "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," transl. G.W. Kitchin, 1882]Used of any sort of dark outline or shadow in profile from 1843. The verb is recorded from 1876, from the noun. The family name is a Frenchified form of a Basque surname; Arnaud de Silhouette, the finance minister's father, was from Biarritz in the French Basque country; the southern Basque form of the name would be Zuloeta or Zulueta, which contains the suffix -eta "abundance of" and zulo "hole" (possibly here meaning "cave").