Periwig

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈpɛɹɪwɪɡ/

Definitions

1. A hairpiece or artificial covering for the head, typically made of long human or animal hair, worn especially during the 17th and 18th centuries as a fashion accessory or symbol of status
2. An artificial head covering constructed from long strands of human or animal hair, fashionable as an ornamental and status-indicating garment during the 17th and 18th centuries
3. A decorative hairpiece composed of lengthy hair material, historically worn as a prestigious accessory and fashion statement in early modern Europe

Etymology: Periwig is an alteration of the Middle French "perruque," the same source that gave English "peruke," which is a doublet of it. The French word has a murky background, and the English form was reshaped over time into something that looks like "peri-" plus "wig," even though "wig" is itself a shortening of "periwig." In other words, the word was built on a shortened form of itself, so the familiar "wig" at the end is a sort of echo of the whole word rather than the root it seems to be. Peruke and periwig therefore share a single origin but reached English by different routes of reshaping, which is why English ended up with two near-identical terms for the same elaborate hairpiece. Periwig remained the common form, and it came to stand for the enormous curled hairstyles worn across early modern Europe.

Synonyms: wig, hairpiece, toupee, headpiece