mustache

• moustache (Commonwealth English)

The mustache of Charlie Chaplin

From 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”).

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌstæʃ/
• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /məsˈtɑːʃ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -æʃ

mustache (plural mustaches)

1. a growth of facial hair between the nose and the upper lip
   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:

     “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.”

• mustachio

• beard
• sideburn, sideboard
• whisker