moustache
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /məˈstɑːʃ/
ipa: /məˈstɒʃ/
ipa: /məˈstæʃ/
ipa: /ˈmʌstæʃ/
ipa: /məˈstæʃ/
ipa: /məˈstaːʃ/
ipa: /məˈstɐːʃ/
note: Indic
ipa: /mʊsˈʈa(t)ʃ/
ipa: /məˈstaʃ/
ipa: /mʊstaʃ/
ipa: /mʌstaʃ/
rhymes: -ɑːʃ
rhymes: -ɒʃ
rhymes: -æʃ
Forms: form: moustaches
form: mustache
Etymology: Used in English since the 16th century. From 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.
Senses: examples: text: A moment later there entered a tall thin Englishman with a great moustache, which was a rare thing amid that clean-shaven race.
ref: 1903, Arthur Conan Doyle, “How the Brigadier Triumphed in England”, in The Adventures of Gerard:
text: “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.
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1908–1910, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, Howards End, New York, N.Y.; London: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], published 1910, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1913 October, Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 555:
text: The Stan Lee fly, or Daptolestes leei, which is said to share his characteristic sunglasses and white moustache
ref: 2020 July 28, “Deadpool fly among new Australian 'super power' species creating a buzz”, in BBC:
glosses: A growth of facial hair between the nose and the upper lip.
examples: text: In this example, the first is a string of text that contains the name property in double curly brackets (or “mustaches”)—this is the syntax for a tag.
ref: 2013, Peter Gasston, The Modern Web: Multi-device Web Development with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 102:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A curly bracket, { or }.
Derived terms: bemoustached
cavalry moustache
Charlie Chaplin moustache
Fu Manchu moustache
handlebar moustache
Hitler moustache
horseshoe moustache
milk moustache
mo
molestache
moustache cup
moustached
moustacheless
moustachelike
moustache-twirling
moustachial
moustachy
mustache ride
pedo-stache
pencil moustache
pornstache
stache
'stache
tache
'tache
toothbrush moustache
twirl one's moustache
walrus moustache
Zapata moustache
Related terms: beard
kemp
Movember
mustachio
nosebeard
sideburn
sideboard
whisker