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Reader question:

What does sentenceAfter a bit, all the bigwigs are seated and there are still plenty of seats, so the ushers open it up to the hoi polloiand particularlybigwigsmean?

My comments:

The bigwigs are people of chief importance, i.e. the VIPs, persons of Very Important Pompousness.

Joking aside, the above sentence means that after the VIPs (Very Important Persons, yes) got seated, everyone else, i.e. the masses (hoi polloi is the Greek word for the common people) – are allowed to take a seat.

Wig, of course, is the artificial hair one wears on the head. A big wig is an elaborate such piece. Wearing the big wig is believed to have originated from a French king who was losing his hair prematurely. And perhaps to prevent him from looking singularly odd (and silly), he ordered allmen of qualityto wear one so that all would look the same (and silly). This, from Phrase.org.uk:

The fashion for wigs began with the Bourbon kings of France. Louis XIII (1601 - 1643) went prematurely bald and took to wearing a wig. By the middle of the century, and especially during the reign of Louis XIV, The Sun King, wigs were virtually obligatory for all European nobility andpersons of quality”.

At that time they were known in England as periwigs, which was shortened to wig by 1675.

Wigs were expensive to purchase and to keep in condition and were the preserve of the powerful and wealthy. Ostentation was the order of the day in Bourbon France and over time the wigs became bigger, often to the point of absurdity and requiring of scaffolding.

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