[ti:Bigwig]
[ar:Warren Scheer]
[al:WORDS AND THEIR STORIES]
[by:www.51voa.com]
[00:00.00](MUSIC)
[00:11.12]Now, the VOA 
[00:13.07]Special English program, 
[00:15.30]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
[00:18.59]Some expressions 
[00:21.19]describe people 
[00:22.93]who are important, 
[00:24.72]or who at least 
[00:26.35]think they are. 
[00:27.66]One such expression is, 
[00:30.20]bigwig.
[00:31.55]In the seventeenth century, 
[00:34.53]important men in Europe 
[00:37.02]began to wear false hair, 
[00:39.06]called wigs.
[00:40.71] As years passed, 
[00:42.66]wigs began to get bigger. 
[00:44.99]The size of a man's wig 
[00:47.93]depended on how important he was. 
[00:51.02]The more important he was 
[00:53.41]-- or thought he was 
[00:55.36]-- the bigger the wig he wore. 
[00:58.09]Some wigs were so large 
[01:00.63]they covered a man's 
[01:02.22]shoulders or back.
[01:04.03]Today, 
[01:08.35]the expression bigwig is 
[01:09.71]used to make fun of a person
[01:11.47]who feels important. 
[01:13.27]People never tell someone 
[01:15.45]he is a bigwig. 
[01:16.77]They only use the expression 
[01:19.49]behind his back.
[01:21.40]Big wheel is another way 
[01:24.42]to describe an important person. 
[01:26.67]A big wheel may be 
[01:29.39]the head of a company, 
[01:30.76]a political leader, 
[01:32.21]a famous movie star. 
[01:34.33]They are big wheels 
[01:35.90]because they are powerful. 
[01:37.81]What they do affects many persons. 
[01:41.40]Big wheels give the orders. 
[01:43.69]Other people carry them out.  
[01:46.42]As in many machines, 
[01:48.63]a big wheel makes 
[01:50.89]the little wheels turn.
[01:52.63]Big wheel became 
[01:54.97]a popular expression 
[01:56.50]after World War Two.
[01:58.10] It probably comes 
[02:00.06]from an expression used 
[02:01.70]for many years by people 
[02:04.04]who fix parts of cars and trucks. 
[02:06.32]They said a person 
[02:08.17]rolled a big wheel 
[02:10.20]if he was important 
[02:12.57]and had influence.
[02:14.36]The top of something 
[02:17.20]is the highest part. 
[02:19.09]So it is not surprising 
[02:21.48]that top is part of 
[02:23.92]another expression 
[02:25.16]that describes 
[02:26.26]an important person.
[02:28.06] The expression is, 
[02:29.62]top banana. 
[02:31.61]A top banana 
[02:33.90]is the leading person 
[02:35.44]in a comedy show.
[02:36.89]The funniest comedian 
[02:38.93]is called the top banana. 
[02:40.89]The next is second banana. 
[02:43.97]And so on.
[02:45.42]Why a banana? 
[02:48.22]A comedy act in earlier days 
[02:51.71]often included a part 
[02:53.25]where one of the comedians 
[02:55.21]would hit the others 
[02:56.50]over the head 
[02:57.50]with a soft object. 
[02:59.26]The object was shaped 
[03:01.60]like a yellow fruit: the banana.
[03:04.19]Top banana still is used mainly 
[03:08.43]in show business. 
[03:09.97]Yet the expression also can be used 
[03:13.21]to describe the top person in any area.
[03:16.29]A kingpin is another word 
[03:20.93]for an important person.
[03:22.74]The expression comes 
[03:25.43]from the game of bowling. 
[03:27.17]The kingpin is the number one pin. 
[03:31.10]If hit correctly with the bowling ball, 
[03:33.70]the kingpin will make 
[03:35.90]all the other nine pins fall. 
[03:38.23]And that is the object of the game.
[03:41.37]So, the most important person 
[03:45.56]in a project or business is the kingpin. 
[03:49.15] If the kingpin is removed, 
[03:52.39]the business or project 
[03:55.03]is likely to fail.
[03:57.57]Kingpin is often used 
[03:59.91]to describe an important criminal, 
[04:02.15]or the leader of a criminal gang. 
[04:05.18]A newspaper may report, 
[04:08.37]for example, 
[04:09.21]that police have arrested 
[04:11.85]the suspected kingpin of 
[04:14.01]a car-stealing operation.
[04:16.41](MUSIC)
[04:27.37]This VOA Special English program, 
[04:31.34]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, 
[04:33.79]was written by Marilyn Christiano. 
[04:36.87] I'm Warren Scheer.