Guess the Word V (5) Answer

I think what I like about these old videos is that they mainly feature your personality, which is fun. You’ve developed a real style over the last year, but the foundation of your success really is just that you yourself are a fun person, which is interesting. It’s cool that in just a year someone could basically make a minor celebrity out of themselves with youtube, some smarts, a little talent, and a lot of video making!

All that to say, I thought this was adorably silly, the whole cutout bit.

Keep rockin’

Hm, you look a little ……were you drunken the other day ?….or you just went to bed late ? :mrgreen:

You realy look sweet in this one :!: :!: :!: …… :grin:

Duh, I have to log for some time, my aunties are here, they will hang me for watching Marina with those wide-open tops :mrgreen: :oops:

Damn WhiteSmoke expired…..grrrr was a nice one.

yes! third wohooo :mrgreen: such an awsome gift on my birthday(Posted on September 7, 2007 )

You looked so nice on this one, especially with the hairstyle!!

Hi Marina!

I’m new here! First, let me congratulate you for your website and the idea of bringing people’s attention ( you know very well how ;) towards the fascinating world of Linguistics and Etymology. Regarding the word in question, I would like to add some comments about the word origin of ‘Silhouette’. The story about Etienne de Silhouette, his money, the cheap portraits…it might have some sense and it can be perfectly true, but this explanation has nothing to do with an etymological origin.

Etienne’s father came from Biarritz, a cute city in the Basque-speaking region of Labourd, in southwest France, and very close to Spain. Basque is a non-indoeuropean language spoken by a few hundred thousands of people in both northern Spain and southern France. It is one of the oldest languages in Europe, even older than latin, and represents a unique case of language survival within the romanized Europe. It has influenced both Spanish and French, although more Spanish than French. Check this:

In this case, ‘de Silhouette’ acts as a family name, which corresponds in spanish to ‘de Zulueta/de Zuloeta (depending on the Basque dialect)/ (or simply) ‘ Zulueta’. It is a common surname in Spain and Hispan-America and actually a town in the (partially) basque-speaking region of Navarre in northern Spain, although there’s another one in Cuba (many Basques took part on the conquest of America under Spain’s rule).

The English word is obviously taken from the French. ‘Silhouette’ is a French spelling of the Basque surname ‘Zilhueta’, a French Basque variant of the Spanish surname Zulueta or Zulueta. This, in turn, derives from ‘Zulo’ (which means ‘Hole’ in Basque. ‘Zulo’ in Spanish refers to a hide-out place, normally in the underground, where kidnappers and other criminals hide people or valuable things), or ‘Zilo’ (as pronounced in the French Basque-speaking region. In turn, the word ‘Silos’ in English (and many other languages such as Spanish) refers to a place where things are stored), plus a very frequent suffix ‘-eta’ (the French version is ‘-ette’) which means ‘abundance of’ or ‘place of’. The surname was perhaps given orignially to someone who lived where there were many holes in the ground, or perhaps more likely caves. ‘Zulo-eta’ could be translated from Basque as ‘where the hole/around the hole…’ which would refer to the contrast bright (outside)/dark (inside) that precisely defindes the silhouette of a thing.

And you may ask yourself, what the hell has to do this with Etienne’s story?? Seriously, I got no idea..! But there’s something mysterious here, because this can not be a simple coincidence. It is likely that Etienne had some knowledge of Basque because of his father’s backgrounds…but got no idea how did he come to a story like this about cheap portraits painted due to a lack of financing and actually refering to his surname’s real meaning…This could be a new investigating line for HFW, don’t you think?? I suggest you to make ‘Silhouette Pt 3′ and let people know more about the fascinating origin of this word. Just you know how to do this ;) Btw, you speak russian, right? check this website (http://ec-dejavu.ru/v/Vasco.html), although it’s in russian, I can notice they speak about ‘Silhouette’s origin.

Hope you can read the article and add you comments.

Take care naughty girl ;)

Greetings from Spain,

Alberto

(Stingy) Art is good. Smart you are. Draw On!!! :grin:

Seven year war…What a cheap guy that Sihouette…The 7 year war ended in the year 1763 and was considered a world wide war. Interesting sides…where I live; France lost to her colonial [rivalry], the English-of N.America-USA….WISCONSIN :roll: :eek: Even Russia, occupied Berlin back then….peace with free cake!*!*!*!*!*!

Wow Marina! You are a good artist too!
:mrgreen:

i hope you have progressed , LOUL! ahah