the.com/outline
the skeleton you build before the body, then quietly abandon halfway through.
means A line marking the outer edge of a shape, or a rough preliminary plan listing the main points of something before the details are filled in.
from A plain English compound: "out" plus "line," meaning literally the line marking the outside of a thing. It surfaced in the 17th century as an artist's and draftsman's term — the contour line drawn first to bound a figure. The figurative "summary of main points" sense grew naturally from that: the bare boundary of an idea before you color it in.
roman rootsAncient orators memorized speeches via mental room-by-room layouts.
art originEarliest drawings were pure contour, no shading at all.
legend saysA girl traced her lover's shadow, inventing portraiture.
writer's lieMany novelists outline meticulously, then ignore every point.
map echoCoastlines are nature's outlines, infinitely long up close.