moustache

Etymology

Used in English since the 16th century. Via French moustache from Italian mostaccio, from Early Medieval Latin mustācium, 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.

noun

1. A growth of facial hair between the nose and the upper lip.
   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. 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 555