Meaning

noun an outline of a solid object (as cast by its shadow)

noun a drawing of the outline of an object; filled in with some uniform color

verb project on a background, such as a screen, like a silhouette

originBorrowed from French silhouette, after Étienne de Silhouette (1709–1767), French Controller of Finances. De Silhouette's penny-pinching led to the French term à la Silhouette, applied to things perceived as cheap or austere, such as an outline filled only with black. Étienne de Silhouette's surname is, in turn, gallicized Basque. It derives from Ziloeta or Zilhoeta, modern Basque Zulueta, from…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0