mustache

English

Alternative forms

moustache (Commonwealth English)

The mustache of Charlie Chaplin

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

(US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌstæʃ/
(Received Pronunciation, General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /məsˈtɑːʃ/
Audio (US) (file)
Rhymes: -æʃ

Noun

mustache (plural mustaches)

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.”