Introduction
Étienne de Silhouette, a French politician of Basque ancestry, was the Controller-General of Finances under Louis XV in 1759. His measures to curb the national debt, notably by imposing new taxes on the rich and the nobility prompted a backlash and ultimately his dismissal after less than a year leaving the work unfinished. This lead to the derogatory phrase (faire quelque chose) à la Silhouette to mean "(to do something) in a cheap, miserly, or unfinished way".
Around the same time, black paper silhouette portraits became popular in France, and were derided as a cheap option for portraits—portrait à la Silhouette.
The name Silhouette is from Basque Zulueta (archaic variant Zilhoeta), from Basque zulo: "hole, pit, hiding place, cave". Spanish silo is of unclear origin, it may be from zulo. Or silo could be from Greek σιρός siros: "pit, pitfall, pit for storing grain", but that is again of unclear and probably non-Greek origin—maybe the same European neolithic substrate as underlies the Basque?
Teaser
Full Text
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European substrate?
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Vasconic *zuLo
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Basque zulo hole, pit, hiding place, cave
- Basque zulogune gully, depression
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Basque Zulueta placename: Cave-place, also habitational surname
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French Silhouette
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French silhouette
- English silhouette
- Japanese シルエット shiruetto silhouette
- Polish sylwetka figure, silhouette
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- Spanish Zulueta
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Spanish silo silo
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English silo
- Japanese サイロ sairo silo
- French silo silo
- Persian سیلو silu silo
- Russian силос silos silo from Spanish plural silos
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- Spanish zulo cache, hiding place
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Pre-Greek
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Classical Greek σιρός sirós pit, pit for storing grain, pitfall
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Latin sirus pit for storing grain, underground granary
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Spanish silo silo
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English silo
- Japanese サイロ sairo silo
- French silo silo
- Persian سیلو silu silo
- Russian силос silos silo from Spanish plural silos
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Classical Greek σιρομάστης siromástēs gauge for measuring stored grain lit. "pit-searcher"
- Latin siromastes
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