periwig means A wig, especially any kind of stylised wig as formerly worn by men and women. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
PERIWIG — [Noun] A stylized wig, especially an elaborate head-covering worn as formal or fashionable attire. From an alteration of Middle French perruque, meaning "wig." Unlike a "peruke," which evokes the powdered, architectural formality of a court portrait, or a "toupee," which implies a furtive, prosthetic patch, a periwig suggests the artifice of an entire public persona. It is the horse-hair avalanche cascading over a judge's shoulders, the intricate confection of curls bobbing above a minuet, the stark, white helmet on a bewigged footman—a borrowed majesty, a hollow monument to the selves we construct from dead hair and powdered surface.
noun
- A wig, especially any kind of stylised wig as formerly worn by men and women.“O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundling […]”
verb
- To dress with a periwig, or with false hair; to bewig.“Discord periwigg'd with snakes”