A wig, especially one with long hair on the sides and back, worn mainly by men in the 17th and 18th centuries
But now at thirty years my hair is grey— / (I wonder what it will be like at forty? / I thought of a peruke the other day—) .
or Periwig Menage ingeniously derives these words from the Latin pilus (hair) Thus, pilus, pelus, pelutus, peluticus, pelutica, peru'a, perruque The wigs are first mentioned in the 16th century; in the next century they became very large The fashion began to wane in the reign of George III Periwig is a corrupt form of the French word perruque