mustache

English

Alternative forms

• (Commonwealth English) moustache

Etymology

From French moustache, from Italian mostaccio, from Byzantine Greek μουστάκιον (moustákion), diminutive of (Doric) Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústaks, “upper lip”), from Proto-Indo-European *mendʰ- (“to chew”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌstæʃ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmʊstɑːʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

mustache (plural mustaches)

1. A growth of facial hair between the nose and the upper lip.
   • 1908, W. B. M. Ferguson, Zollenstein, chapterIV:

     “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

Derived terms

• Charlie Chaplin mustache
• Fu Manchu mustache
• handlebar mustache
• Hitler mustache
• molestache
• mustache ride
• stache, 'stache
• tache, 'tache
• toothbrush mustache

Translations

moustache — see moustache

See also

• beard
• sideburn, sideboard
• whisker