contour

Etymology

It is borrowed from French contour (“circuit, circumference, outline”),^[2][3][4][5] from contourner (“to go around”),^[2][3][6] and in its artistic sense it matches Italian contorno (“circuit, outline”).^[2][5] Many dictionaries take the French word from the Italian one,^{[7][8][9][10]} and the American Heritage Dictionary and Klein call it an alteration of the Italian word under the influence of tour (“turn”).^[11][12] The Italian noun comes from contornare (“to draw in outline, go around”),^[9][8][13] also Medieval Latin contornō,^[4][3] from com- and tornō (“to turn on a lathe, round off”),^[11][4][5] from tornus (“lathe”),^[3][13] which is from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “a tool for drawing circles; lathe”).^[11] The American Heritage Dictionary refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, turn”).^[11] It is related to turn and tour.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The outline of a figure, as a term of painting and sculpture: 1662, in John Evelyn's Sculptura,^[2][3][4] and Klein credits Evelyn with bringing the word into English.^[12] Barnhart and Etymonline note that contour was probably used earlier, from 1423, for a bedspread or quilt that falls over the sides of the mattress.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "the outline; the line by which any figure is defined or terminated".^[14] From 1770 it was applied to the outline of a coast, mountain or other landform.^[2][4] In 1840 it also came to mean a contour line on a map, joining points of equal height.^[2][4] In the late 18th century it was briefly used of the spiral of a shell (1755) and of a round of amusements (1784).^[2] From 1886 the plural contours meant the curves of a woman's body.^[2] Since 1941 phonetics has used the word for a pattern of rising and falling pitch or stress.^[2][10] The verb, to mark with contour lines or to carry a road around the side of a hill, appeared in 1871;^[2][4][13] its sense "to follow the contour of" is first found in 1924, in an account of the climbing of Everest.^[2] As a modifier the word described ploughing along contour lines to prevent erosion,^[13] and things shaped to fit the body, as in contour chair (1949).^[4][13]

Timeline

• 1423 – probably a bedspread or quilt.^[3][4]
• 1662 – outline, in painting and sculpture (Evelyn).^[2][3]
• 1755 – the spiral of a shell (obsolete).^[2]
• 1770 – the outline of a coast or mountain.^[2]
• 1840 – a contour line.^[2]
• 1844 – adjective, following contour lines.^[13]
• 1871 – verb, to mark with contour lines; to carry a road around a hill.^[2][4][13]
• 1886 – contours, the curves of a woman's body.^[2]
• 1924 – verb, to follow the contour of.^[2]
• 1941 – phonetics, a pattern of pitch or stress.^[2]
• 1949 – contour chair.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The outline of a figure, body or mass of land: the contour of the coastline.^[10][13][2]
2. (often plural) The shape or surface of something, especially a curved one: the smooth contours of the vase.^[10][13]
3. A contour line on a map.^[10][2]
4. A pattern of rising and falling pitch, as in intonation or music.^[10][2]

Verb

1. To shape something so that it fits or follows a form: The seat was contoured to the driver's back.^[10][13]
2. To mark contour lines on a map.^[10][2]
3. To build a road or railway along the contour of a hill.^[10][13][2]

Adjective

1. Shaped to fit the outline of the body or of what it holds: a contour pillow.^[10][13]
2. (agriculture) Following the contour lines of the land, to reduce erosion: contour ploughing.^[13]

Word family

• recontour
• contour feather
• contour interval
• contour map

Related words

• turn
• tour
• detour
• contour line

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.