From names to wordsScience, ideas & the arts

silhouette

Étienne de Silhouette's family name came from a Basque place name meaning 'the holes'. He was France's finance minister for eight austere months in 1759, and 'à la Silhouette' came to mean anything done on the cheap, like the cut-paper profile portraits that took his name — and travelled from French across Europe and to Japan.

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1600Basque

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

silhouette

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