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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 88. The word origin today is

  • "bigwig. " Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If we say that someone is a

  • big wig, it means that he or she is a very important person of power or

  • authority, especially somebody in a company or an organization. So we say

  • somebody is a big wig. Okay. Let's continue.

  • Sometimes this term is used in a disparaging way. Like maybe sometimes we

  • don't like this person. We're kind of annoyed by them. Sometimes when we call

  • them a bigwig ... in a disparaging way to show you don't like them or look upon

  • them unfavorably. All right. Let's continue. The origin of this term goes back to the

  • 1600s. The first wigs seem to have taken off in France. Remember here we say take

  • off means became very popular in France. King Louis the XIII started to go

  • bald prematurely. So you know, at a young age and started wearing a wig. So you could

  • kind of say he set it off. Maybe he was a little bit of a trendsetter. Soon after

  • it became almost mandatory for anyone of royalty, nobility or high standing in

  • society to wear them. Okay. Basically anyone who was anyone or anyone of

  • importance or significance needed to wear one. Wigs were very expensive and

  • only the rich powerful and wealthy could afford such an extravagance. Okay. Over

  • time, the bigger and the higher one could wear a wig , the more the more status it

  • would be a symbol of. Thus the term big wig was born. So that's why they said

  • they must be a big wig some person of high importance basically.

  • Okay. Good. And lawyers were also expected to wear them. That's why even in

  • today ... Today even in England we still see that some lawyers still wear them from this

  • very old tradition. And it must be hot and we know even today those that wear

  • them in England they are very expensive those wigs. Okay let's continue. The

  • earliest use appears in the late 1700s. Well here the earliest use means the

  • earliest use of the term big wig. The wigs probably started in like around the

  • 1600s but you know, by the 1700 so we could find the term in use. Okay. And we

  • just have a couple of examples to cover this. You need to make sure everything

  • appears in order. Some of the big wigs from headquarters are visiting our

  • factory today. So if anything looked out of order you know , somebody at the

  • factory ... the managers at the factory might get in trouble or they might have some

  • problems. They might have something said to them. So when they know they're coming,

  • they try to make everything look good before they get there. Some big wigs are

  • coming and you got to make sure ... no mess, no nothing around. Okay. Number two. Some big

  • wigs in the State Department decided to cut our benefits. This is another way

  • that you are kind of like annoyed at them. This would be a typical way that we

  • might use it. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. I hope it was informative.

  • Thank you for your time. Bye-bye..

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 88. The word origin today is

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