Perücke

Came across this word while reading about some 18th century German or other who refused to wear one. It translates from German as peruke, wig or periwig, which stems from the early 1500’s and is attributed to the word perwyke which comes from the Italian parrucca (head of hair). It has nothing to do with the Greek preposition peri (around, about, beyond).


Turns out there is an animated short from 2000 (featuring Kevin Branagh’s voice and a script taken from Daniel Defoe’s 'A Journal of the Plague Year' called The Periwig-Maker. Strangely enough, it is funded by an assortment of German organizations. Also strange is the fact that, due to religious persecution (he came from a family of Dissenters, as did William Blake) and general bad luck, Defoe— who wrote the highly successful Robinson Crusoe, not to mention a popular history of pirates—died hiding in a boarding house, trying to evade a bill collector. Not strange enough for you? Think I'm wasting my time looking up words that are never going to come up in day to day life? Behold the "Afroperücke"...


...from a German website selling them. As they say on EuroNews here, No Comment.