high profile
This word has come into vogue and seems to be displacing the more succint word "prominent". Am I wrong in thinking that the word came into use from the military -- in the sense of "high profile...
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The big dic has 1986 for "high profile," but these earlier cites for "low profile" provide confirmation (of a sort -- the 1967 cite is more literal than your figurative sense) of your intuited...
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I'd say they're similar but not the same. For people, high profile means very visible (famous) while prominent means well respected (as in outstanding in your field). In science, Stephen Hawking is...
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The OED does not have an entry for "high profile" as a term, but it appears in 15 quotations in other entries. All are from the 1990s, with a lone usage from 1986. The earliest terms all seem to be in...
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"High profile vehicles " in SoCal traffic reports refers to vans & big trucks as in- "Santa Ana winds are blowing through the passes & canyons & there a is a warning for high profile...
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It sounds as if the military origin doesn't hold water. I agree that "high profile" and "prominent" aren't exactly synonymous -- but are two words ever exact synonyms? Another synonym might be "well...
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The argument in favor of a military origin would run this way:the sense of "high profile" being discussed is a figurative or metaphorical one, not a literal sense; in figurative terms, "low profile"...
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I wonder if an infantry man's training wouldn't include some advice about maintaining a low profile.You think of a fellow being sillouetted against the sky, all plump and pick-offable in a sniper's...
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Searching the NY Times and Wall Street Journal archives turns up lots (from the '40s or earlier) of uses of "low profile" for objects that don't stick up very far, including shoes, boats, and cars....
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