• n. 輪廓，剪影
• vt. 使…照出影子來；使…僅僅顯出輪廓
• n. (Silhouette)人名；(法)西盧埃特

來自 18 世紀歐洲七年戰爭時期的法國財務部長 Etienne de Silhouette,因在戰爭時期實施緊縮 的財政政策而遭到過慣了奢靡生活的其它貴族的憤恨，因而引申該詞義。同時，也有另一種 觀點認為是因該財務部長用類似剪影圖片裝飾自家城堡而得名。

silhouette

silhouette: [18] The term silhouette commemorates the name of the French author and politician étienne de Silhouette (1709–67). As finance minister in the late 1750s he gained a reputation for cheeseparing, and silhouette came to be used for anything skimped. One account of the application of the word to a ‘simple cut-out picture’ is that it carries on this notion of ‘simplicity’ or ‘lack of finish’, but an alternative theory is that Silhouette himself was in the habit of making such pictures. The metaphorical use of the term for a ‘dark image against a bright background’ emerged in the mid-19th century.

silhouette (n.)

1798, from French silhouette, in reference to étienne de Silhouette (1709-1767), French minister of finance in 1759. Usually said to be so called because it was an inexpensive way of making a likeness of someone, a derisive reference to Silhouette's petty economies to finance the Seven Years' War, which were unpopular among the nobility. But other theories are that it refers to his brief tenure in office, or the story that he decorated his chateau with such portraits.

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").

1. Even from behind in silhouette, Billy recognized the figure.

即便看到的只是背影的輪廓，比利還是認出了那個人影。

來自柯林斯例句

2. the silhouette of chimneys and towers

煙囪和塔樓的輪廓

來自《權威詞典》

3. I could see its black silhouette against the evening sky.

我能看到夜幕下它黑色的輪廓.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

4. He drew the city in silhouette.

他勾勒出這個城市的輪廓.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

5. The shirt's ideal worn loose over leggings or tuck it in for a streamlined silhouette.

這件襯衫最好是松松垮垮地穿在緊身褲外面，或者是塞進褲子里以顯出苗條的身材。

來自柯林斯例句