silhouette

Where does the word "silhouette" come from? It comes from French Etienne de Silhouette, and was adopted directly into English (1800s).

Silhouette’s story begins in French: Etienne de Silhouette meant “a stingy finance minister's name.” France's notoriously stingy finance minister, whose name became a byword for anything cut-rate or simplified. It reached English by 1800s as silhouette. Settled as the word for a simple dark outline portrait, cheap to produce compared to a painting. Today, silhouette means the dark outline of a person or object against a lighter background.

1. Stage 1 · French · 1750s Etienne de Silhouette "a stingy finance minister's name", France's notoriously stingy finance minister, whose name became a byword for anything cut-rate or simplified.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1800s silhouette "a dark outline against a lighter background", settled as the word for a simple dark outline portrait, cheap to produce compared to a painting.