Profile

How to spell profile

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce profile

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does profile mean?

1. nounA side view of something, or a short account giving the most striking features of a person or thing.
2. verbTo describe or analyse the notable characteristics of a person or thing.

Profile in a sentence

• noun

  The magazine ran a detailed profile of the new chief executive.

• verb

  The analysts use survey data to profile their typical customer.

• noun

  Her profile was visible against the bright window as she turned her head.

• verb

  The journalist was asked to profile three rising politicians for the feature.

Where does profile come from?

Language of origin: Italian

This word travelled into English from Italian, where profilo described an outline or contour, especially the side view of a face. That noun came from the verb profilare, 'to draw in outline', which combined the prefix pro- meaning 'forward' or 'forth' with filare, 'to spin out a thread', built on the Latin filum meaning 'a thread' or 'a line'. The underlying idea was of drawing a line forward to trace an edge, exactly what an artist does when sketching the contour of a head seen from the side. English adopted the term in the seventeenth century, at first chiefly in drawing and architecture, and only later extended it to mean a short biographical sketch and then a personal description held on a computer system. The hidden Latin filum is also the ancestor of 'file' and 'filament', which helps explain why profile keeps that single, easily forgotten 'l' rather than a doubled one.

How the word is built

• pro- (forth, forward)
• file (from filare/filum: to spin out, thread or line)