moustache
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Man with moustache and sideburns
Alternative forms[edit]
- moustaches
- (US spelling) mustache, mustaches
Etymology[edit]
Used in English since the 16th century. Via French moustache from Italian mostaccio, from Byzantine Greek μουστάκιον (moustákion), diminutive of (Doric) Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústax, “upper lip”), from Proto-Indo-European *mendʰ- (“to chew”). Replaced native English kemp (“moustache”), from Old English cenep (“moustache”).
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK)
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /məˈstɑːʃ/, /məˈstɒʃ/
- (Northern England) IPA(key): /məˈstæʃ/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈmʌstæʃ/, /məˈstæʃ/
Audio (US) (file) - (General Australian) IPA(key): /məˈstɑːʃ/
- (General New Zealand) IPA(key): /məˈstɐːʃ/
- Rhymes: -ɑːʃ, -ɒʃ, -æʃ, -ɐːʃ
Noun[edit]
moustache (plural moustaches)
- A growth of facial hair between the nose and the upper lip.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:
- “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.
- 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 555:
- Crabbe caught the eye of the oboist, an ancient man with dignified moustaches, and mimed that they were going round to the front, to watch the real thing, the shadows.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:moustache.
Usage notes[edit]
The plural forms moustaches and mustaches, while formerly popular equivalents for the facial hair on a man's upper lip, are now archaic, with the singular preferred.
Derived terms[edit]
See also[edit]
Translations[edit]
hair on upper lip
|
|
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Neapolitan mustaccio (compare Italian mostaccio), itself, possibly through an intermediate Late Latin *mustaceum (see for cognates), from Byzantine Greek μουστάκιον (moustákion), from Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústax).
Pronunciation[edit]
- IPA(key): /mus.taʃ/
audio (file) - Homophone: moustaches
Noun[edit]
moustache f (plural moustaches)
Derived terms[edit]
See also[edit]
- barbe f
Further reading[edit]
- “moustache” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Anagrams[edit]
Norman[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French moustache.
Noun[edit]
moustache f (plural moustaches)
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Italian
- English terms derived from Byzantine Greek
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Hair
- en:Moustaches
- French terms borrowed from Neapolitan
- French terms derived from Neapolitan
- French terms derived from Late Latin
- French terms derived from Byzantine Greek
- French terms derived from Ancient Greek
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French terms with homophones
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French feminine nouns
- French countable nouns
- Norman terms borrowed from French
- Norman terms derived from French
- Norman lemmas
- Norman nouns
- Norman feminine nouns
- Jersey Norman
- nrf:Hair