silhouetteとは

意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• silhouet

語源

Borrowed from French silhouette, from the name of Étienne de Silhouette (1709-1767), a French politician. His surname, in turn, is (gallicized) Basque, from Ziloeta or Zilhoeta, from zulo (“hole, cave”).

発音

• IPA^(key): /ˌsɪ.lʊˈwɛt/, /ˌsɪ.ləˈwɛt/, /ˌsɪ.luːˈwɛt/
• 韻: -ɛt

名詞

silhouette (複数形 silhouettes)

1. An illustrated outline filled in with a solid color(s), usually only black, and intended to represent the shape of an object without revealing any other visual details; a similar appearance produced when the object being viewed is situated in relative darkness with brighter lighting behind it; a profile portrait in black, such as a shadow appears to be. [mid 19th c.]

   I could see a silhouette of a figure looking out from the window, but I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.

動詞

silhouette (三人称単数 現在形 silhouettes, 現在分詞 silhouetting, 過去形および過去分詞形 silhouetted)

1. To represent by a silhouette; to project upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette. [late 19th c.]
   • 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka (republished by Eland, 2019; p. 35):

     Scores of coconut-shell fires blazed with their characteristic glaring white flame, throwing grotesque shadows on the brown thatched huts, dancing fairylike shimmerings among the domes of coconut fronds, casting ghostly reaches of light through the adjacent graveyards, and silhouetting the forms of pareu-clad natives at work cleaning their fish or laying them on the live coals to broil.

Further reading

• silhouette on Wikipedia.
• Étienne de Silhouette on Wikipedia.