moustache
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- moustaches
- (US spelling) mustache, mustaches
Etymology
[edit]Used in English since the 16th century. Via Middle French moustache from Italian mostaccio, from Early Medieval Latin mustācium, from Byzantine Greek μουστάκιον (moustákion), diminutive of (Doric) Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústax, “upper lip”), of unknown origin (probably a Pre-Greek substrate). Replaced native English kemp (“moustache”), from Old English cenep.
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): /məˈstaːʃ/
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /məˈstɐːʃ/
- Rhymes: -ɑːʃ, -ɒʃ, -æʃ
Noun
[edit]moustache (plural moustaches)
- A growth of facial hair between the nose and the upper lip.
- 1903, Arthur Conan Doyle, “How the Brigadier Triumphed in England”, in The Adventures of Gerard[1]:
- A moment later there entered a tall thin Englishman with a great moustache, which was a rare thing amid that clean-shaven race.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- “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.
- 1908–1910, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, Howards End, New York, N.Y., London: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], published 1910, →OCLC:
- A hint of the truth broke on him after Sedan, when he saw the dyed moustaches of Napoleon going grey; another when he entered Paris, and saw the smashed windows of the Tuileries.
- 1910 September 3, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Secret Garden”, in The Innocence of Father Brown, London, New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, published 1911, →OCLC:
- Ivan, the confidential man with the scar and the moustaches, came out of the house like a cannon ball, and came racing across the lawn to Valentin like a dog to his master.
- 1913 October, Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
- Small, well-knit, fair, he sat stroking his slight blond moustache and looking at her with kindly, almost tender eyes; but he left it to his sister and the others to draw her out and fit her into the pattern.
- 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.
- (computing, informal) A curly bracket, { or }.
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]- cavalry moustache
- Charlie Chaplin moustache
- Fu Manchu moustache
- handlebar moustache
- Hitler moustache
- horseshoe moustache
- milk moustache
- mo
- molestache
- moustache cup
- mustache ride
- pencil moustache
- philtrum moustache
- stache, 'stache
- tache, 'tache
- toothbrush moustache
- twirl one's moustache
- walrus moustache
- Zapata moustache
Translations
[edit]
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See also
[edit]French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Neapolitan mustaccio (compare Italian mostaccio), from Early Medieval Latin mustācium, from Byzantine Greek μουστάκιον (moustákion), diminutive from Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústax).
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /mus.taʃ/
Audio: (file) - Homophone: moustaches
Noun
[edit]moustache f (plural moustaches)
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “moustache”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
[edit]Norman
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French moustache.
Noun
[edit]moustache f (plural moustaches)
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Italian
- English terms derived from Early Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Byzantine Greek
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from a Pre-Greek substrate
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɑːʃ
- Rhymes:English/ɑːʃ/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɒʃ
- Rhymes:English/æʃ
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Computing
- English informal terms
- en:Hair
- en:Moustaches
- French terms borrowed from Neapolitan
- French terms derived from Neapolitan
- French terms derived from Early Medieval 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 pronunciation
- French terms with homophones
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- Norman terms borrowed from French
- Norman terms derived from French
- Norman lemmas
- Norman nouns
- Norman feminine nouns
- Jersey Norman
- nrf:Hair