Moustache

A moustache (American English: mustache; pronounced /mə'stɑːʃ/ in RP and /'mʌstæʃ/ in General American) is facial hair grown on the upper lip. Often the term implies that the wearer grows only upper-lip hair while shaving the hair on his chin and cheeks. Growth of facial hair around the whole face constitutes a beard. The word "moustache" derives from 16th century French moustache, which in turn is derived from the Italian mostaccio (14th century... more

A moustache (American English: mustache; pronounced /mə'stɑːʃ/ in RP and /'mʌstæʃ/ in General American) is facial hair grown on the upper lip. Often the term implies that the wearer grows only upper-lip hair while shaving the hair on his chin and cheeks. Growth of facial hair around the whole face constitutes a beard. The word "moustache" derives from 16th century French moustache, which in turn is derived from the Italian mostaccio (14th century), dialectal mustaccio (16th century), from Medieval Latin mustacium (8th century), Medieval Greek moustakion (attested in the 9th century), which ultimately originates as a diminutive of Hellenistic Greek mustax (mustak-) "moustache", probably derived from Hellenistic Greek mullon "lip". Shaving with stone razors was technologically possible from Neolithic times but the oldest portrait showing a shaved man with a moustache is an ancient Iranian (Scythian) horseman from 300 BC. In more modern history, moustaches have been worn by military men.... less