• 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

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

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轮廓，比利还是认出了那个人影。

来自柯林斯例句

2. the silhouette of chimneys and towers

烟囱和塔楼的轮廓

来自《权威词典》

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

我能看到夜幕下它黑色的轮廓.

来自《简明英汉词典》

4. He drew the city in silhouette.

他勾勒出这个城市的轮廓.

来自《简明英汉词典》

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

这件衬衫最好是松松垮垮地穿在紧身裤外面，或者是塞进裤子里以显出苗条的身材。

来自柯林斯例句