different between delineate vs silhouette

English

Etymology

From Latin d?l?ne?tus, past participle of d?l?neo (“to sketch out, to delineate”), from de- + l?nea (“line”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??l?ni?e?t/

Verb

delineate (third-person singular simple present delineates, present participle delineating, simple past and past participle delineated)

1. To sketch out, draw or trace an outline.
2. To depict, represent with pictures.
3. To describe or depict with words or gestures.
4. To outline or mark out.

Synonyms

• (to mark the limits or boundaries): demark, demarcate, delimit

Derived terms

• delineation
• delineative
• delineator

Translations

Further reading

• delineate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• delineate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Italian

Verb

delineate

1. second-person plural present indicative of delineare
2. second-person plural imperative of delineare
3. feminine plural of delineato

Latin

Verb

d?l?ne?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of d?l?ne?

English

Alternative forms

• silhouet

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?.l??w?t/, /?s?.l??w?t/, /?s?.lu??w?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

silhouette (plural 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.

Translations

Verb

silhouette (third-person singular simple present silhouettes, present participle silhouetting, simple past and past participle 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.Wikipedia
• Étienne de Silhouette on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Silhouette, after Étienne de Silhouette, a French politician, from Basque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si.lw?t/, /si.lu.?t/

Noun

silhouette f (plural silhouettes)

1. silhouette

Verb

silhouette

1. inflection of silhouetter:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “silhouette” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).