means A side-on view of something, or by extension a concise summary of a person's characteristics, history, or data.

from From Italian 'profilo,' meaning a drawing in outline, built from 'pro-' (forth) and 'filare' (to spin out a thread or draw a line) — itself rooted in Latin 'filum,' a thread. The image is of a line traced along an edge, the contour you see when a face turns sideways. English borrowed it in the 1600s for the literal outline view; the modern sense of a written sketch of someone's life or qualities followed naturally, since both reduce a whole person to a single revealing line.