A SILHOUETTE ...

is a view of some object or scene consisting of the outline

and a featureless interior, with the silhouette usually

being black. They do not show any facial expression. The word is

an eponym named after Etienne de Silhouette, a finance minister

who in 1759 imposed such harsh economic demands upon

the French people that his name became synonymous with

anything done or made cheaply.

The family name Silhouette is a French form of

a Basque surname, Zilhueta;

Arnaud de Silhouette, Etienne's father, was from

Biarritz in the French Basque Country;

this surname, whose Standard Basque or Batua form is

Zuloeta, contains the suffix -eta "abundance of" and zilho,

Batua zulo, "hole" (possibly here meaning "cave”).