Wiktionary

moustache

English

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Man with moustache and sideburns
 
The moustache of Charlie Chaplin

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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moustache (plural moustaches)

  2. 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.
  3. (computing, informal) A curly bracket, { or }.
    • 2013, Peter Gasston, The Modern Web: Multi-device Web Development with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 102:
      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.

Usage notes

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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

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Translations

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See also

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Neapolitan mustaccio (compare Italian mostaccio), from Early Medieval Latin mustācium, from Byzantine Greek μουστάκιον (moustákion), diminutive from Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústax).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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moustache f (plural moustaches)

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

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → English: moustache
  • → Swedish: mustasch

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Norman

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French moustache.

Noun

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moustache f (plural moustaches)

  1. (Jersey) moustache
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