bigwig
big·wig
noun
1.
the most important person in a group or undertaking
Origin
First arose in the 1730s, from big + wig. Formerly, English men of authority (such as judges and Members of Parliament) wore wigs. Bigwig plays on the idea that higher authority is denoted by a larger wig.
Related words
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.