The Biography of the Bigwig

Johann Christoph Wagenseil
and his big wig

Yesterday morning a patron used our new chat service, Digsby, to ask us about the etymology of the term bigwig. (Want to use Digsby to ask us a question, too? Scroll up, choose a screen name, and type it into the message box.) According to my favorite dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary (impossible to resist so many volumes of words!), a bigwig is

a person of high official standing; a noteworthy or important person.

The OED 's first recorded mention occurred in 1703 in English Spy. Notice how bigwig is hyphenated:

Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes..against dun or don-nob or big-wig-so you may never want a bumper of bishop.

By the way, the OED says that in this case, a bumper is a glass of wine filled to the brim; a bishop is wine mixed with sugar and oranges or lemons. I needed to clarify that because I had a completely different image developing in my head. Fascinating, but not the origin of bigwig.

I hit pay dirt in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. They say:

The term alludes to the large wigs that in the 17th and 18th centuries encumbered the head and shoulders of the aristocracy of England and France. They are still worn by the lord chancellor, judges and (until 2000) the speaker of the house of commons. Bishops continued to wear them in the house of lords until 1880.

So, if you've ever watched an British crime procedural or A Fish Called Wanda, you've got a pretty idea of the wigs being described. Large. Ludicrous. Ugly. Big. We here in the Reference Department do not recommend wearing these types of wigs. (Unless, of course, you have a part in an British crime procedural...)

Fast fact: Richard Adams named one of the rabbits in Watership Down Bigwig. He (naturally) had a fluffy mop of rabbit hair atop his head.

Big. (2009). In Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/brewerphrase/big
Bigwig. (2004). In Chambers Dictionary of Literary Characters. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/chamblc/bigwig

Bigwig, n.Third edition, September 2008; online version June 2012. http://oed.com/view/Entry/18902 accessed 13 August 2012. An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1887.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Christoph_Wagenseil.png
 

Olé, Ole Miss!

The University of Mississippi is called simply Ole Miss nine times out of ten. A lot of out-of-state people call her Old Miss, but we know that isn't right. It's Ole. Last night, we were asked about books that would address the question "Where did the nickname Ole Miss come from?" I assumed that it was a typical Southernism--an elided consonant here, a shortened word there--and, voila! Easy Peasy.
Ah, not so fast! I checked out a few of our books here at the Mississippi Library Commission and found a few interesting nuggets. In The University of Mississippi: A Sesquicentennial History, David G. Sansing writes:

In 1897, the Greek societies established a college yearbook, which they titled Ole Miss, a name suggested by Elma Meek, a student from Oxford. The term "Ole Miss" was a title domestic slaves in the Old South used to distinguish the mistress of the plantation house from the young misses of the family. The first volume of the yearbook was dedicated to the University Greys, and within two years students and alumni were referring to the University of Mississippi as Ole Miss.

It seems that The University of Mississippi viewed itself as the college in the state. By the way, this book is available at Eudora Welty Library (part of the Jackson/Hinds Library System) and the Mississippi Library Commission.

Hogan's Heroes? Not Quite!

Yesterday, a Meebo patron inquired as to whether or not Butts Park in Clinton is located at the site of a long-forgotten German POW camp. After some initial searching, I contacted Mike Allard, local Clinton historian. According to Mr. Allard, Butts Park is directly west of and abuts the former Camp Clinton. Here are a few fast facts:

• Clinton was actually the site of one of four POW camps in Mississippi during World War II. The others were Camp Como, Camp McCain (near Grenada), and Camp Shelby (New Southern View).
• It was actually more cost effective to ship the POWs to Mississippi rather than keep them in Africa. That's because instead of trying to ship supplies to both their troops and prisoners, they could fill their empty supply ships with prisoners and send them stateside (MS History).
• General Hans-Jürgen Von Arnim, Hitler's replacement for Rommel, was one of the 3,400 POWs at Clinton. It is rumored that he used his car and driver (Ahh! The perks of being a general!) to escape to the one place in the surrounding area with air conditioning: the Jackson movie theatre (New Southern View).
• The enlisted prisoners in Clinton were paid 80 cents an hour to build a mile square working model of the Mississippi River Basin (MS History). The model was in use until the late 1980s/early 1990s, when the Corps of Engineers moved to sole use of their model in Vicksburg (Allard).

In the early 1970s, the camp was declared surplus and eventually given to Mississippi College. The site of the model was given to the city of Clinton.

I now have the irresistible urge to read The Summer of My German Soldier. I wonder why!

Allard, Mike. Personal interview. 10 Aug. 2010.
http://www.newsouthernview.com/pages/nsv_shm_pows_camp_clinton.html
http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/233/german-prisoners-of-war-in-mississippi-1943-1946

Libraries in Mississippi? Inquiring Minds Want to Know.

A few minutes ago, I responded to a Meebo patron's question about the number of libraries in Mississippi. I'm not certain if our Meebo patron received my response, but just in case he or she didn't, here is the answer again:  We have 611 libraries in Mississippi. 

Here's a break down of the types of libraries:

Public Libraries: 234
Academic Libraries: 31 (16 4-year institutions; 15 2-year institutions)
High School Libraries: 346

If we missed each other before, Meebo patron, I hope this reaches you without incident!

Attention! Calling All Poets Laureate!

While we were on our extended Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, one of our Meebo patrons asked for information on Mississippi's State Poets Laureate. Mississippi's first poet laureate was appointed by Governor Ross Barnett in 1963. Life-time appointments are now made by the legislature. These are Mississippi's poets laureate:

Maude Willard Leet Prenshaw 1963-1971
Louise Moss Montgomery 1973-January 1978
Winifred Hamrick Farrar July 31, 1978-present

Be sure to go to the Library of Congress's state poets laureate pages for more information on these Mississippi poets. Last but not least, we managed to dig up a mention of a 19th century poet laureate. According to Mississippi Scenes: Notes on Literature and History, Samuel Newton Berryhill was "recognized as Poet Laureate of the State" (23) when his Backwoods Poems was published in 1878.
Howell, Elmo. Mississippi Scenes: Notes on Literature and History. Memphis, TN: E. Howell, 1992. Print.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/main/poets/mississippi.html