moustache

• moustaches
• mustache, mustaches

Used in English since the 16th century. Via 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”). Replaced native English kemp (“moustache”), from Old English cenep (“moustache”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məˈstɑːʃ/, Rhymes: -ɑːʃ
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌstæʃ/, /məˈstæʃ/, Rhymes: -æʃ

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /məˈstɑːʃ/, Rhymes: -ɑːʃ
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /məˈstɐːʃ/, Rhymes: -ɐːʃ

moustache (plural moustaches)

1. a growth of facial hair between the nose and the upper lip
   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     “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.

   For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:moustache.

   Coordinate terms: beard, sideburn, sideboard, whisker

The plural forms moustaches and mustaches were formerly popular equivalent terms for the facial hair on the lip of one man, but these uses are now archaic with the singular now preferred.

Borrowed from Neapolitan mustaccio (compare Italian mostaccio), itself, possibly through an intermediate Late Latin *mustaceum, from Byzantine Greek μουστάκιον (moustákion), from Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústax).

• IPA^(key): /mus.taʃ/

• audio

  (file)

• Homophone: moustaches

moustache f (plural moustaches)

1. moustache, mustache
2. (often in plural) whisker (of a cat)

• moustachu

• barbe f

• “moustache” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• mouchâtes
• touchâmes

Borrowed from French moustache.

moustache f (plural moustaches)

1. (Jersey) moustache