Wig vs. Wog — What's the Difference?

A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Wog is an offensive and derogatory term in Australian English and British English usually applied to people from the Mediterranean region and Middle East, such as Southern Europeans and North Africans. In British English, it may also sometimes apply to people from the Indian subcontinent and certain other parts of Asia, such as the East Indies.

An artificial covering of natural or synthetic hair worn on the head for personal adornment, as part of a costume, or to conceal baldness.

Used as a disparaging term for a person of color, especially a person from northern Africa or western or southern Asia.

To scold or censure.

Any person who looks in-between "white" and "black": originally specifically an Indian, but later also broadened to anybody of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean descent.

A head of real or synthetic hair worn on the head to disguise baldness, for cultural or religious reasons, for fashion, or by actors to help them better resemble the character they are portraying.

Specifically someone of Mediterranean descent; the word does not really have an "Indian" connotation in Australia.

A bigwig

Abbreviation of polliwog

An old seal.

A pollywog, or sailor who has never crossed the Equator.

To put on a wig; to provide with a wig (especially of an actor etc.).

A bug, an insect.

To upbraid, reprimand.

A minor illness caused by bacteria, virus, intestinal parasite, etc.

To act in an extremely emotional way; to be overly excited, irritable, nervous, or fearful; behave erratically.

A toy insect in parts that can be assembled, used in fund-raising games.

 To shoot in the head.

(Scientology) A person who is not a Scientologist.

A covering for the head, consisting of hair interwoven or united by a kind of network, either in imitation of the natural growth, or in abundant and flowing curls, worn to supply a deficiency of natural hair, or for ornament, or according to traditional usage, as a part of an official or professional dress, the latter especially in England by judges and barristers.

(Of soldiers stationed abroad) to sell something, especially illicit or stolen goods, to the local inhabitants.

An old seal; - so called by fishermen.

To steal.

To censure or rebuke; to hold up to reprobation; to scold.

An offensive slang term used by the British to refer to people of color from Africa or Asia

Hairpiece covering the head and made of real or synthetic hair

British slang for a scolding