Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

goatee

 
Dictionary: goat·ee   (gō-tē') pronunciation
n.
A small chin beard trimmed into a point.

[Alteration of goaty, from GOAT (from its resemblance to a goat's beard).]

WORD HISTORY   When assessing American contributions to the English language and to fashion, let us not forget the goatee. Early comments on this style of beard appear first in American writings, making this word an Americanism. Although the style raises few eyebrows now, the early comments were not favorable: "One chap's . . . rigged out like a show monkey, with a little tag of hair hangin down under his chin jest like our old billy goat, that's a leetle too smart for this latitude, I think." This 1842 description, found in William Tappan Thompson's Major Jones's Courtship, also reveals the etymology of the word. The first recorded occurrence of the word itself, found in Daniel Lee and Joseph H. Frost's Ten Years in Oregon (1844), also sounds disapproving: "A few individuals . . . leave what is called, by some of their politer neighbors, a 'goaty' under the chin."


Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
WordNet: goatee
Top
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a small chin beard trimmed into a point; named for its resemblance to a goat's beard


Wikipedia: Goatee
Top
A goatee from the late 1880s on Dutch folk hero Dorus Rijkers

In the traditional taxonomy of facial hair, a goatee is a beard formed by a tuft of hair on the chin. The word probably originated from the tuft of hair seen on an adult goat.

Contents

Goatee styles

Soviet premier Bulganin, 1955 - 1958
  • French Fork – a double pointed goatee
  • Musketeer – a small, pointed goatee with an English moustache (narrow, prominent), as worn by the French mousquetaires
  • Van Dyck – a thick goatee and moustache with upturned ends, as worn by the 17th century Flemish painter Sir Anthony van Dyck. In modern usage, a Van Dyck is often any moustache and goatee combination.

Depending on the wearer and his personality, goatees are worn either fully maintained and trimmed daily, or they can be worn quite robust. The style is also based on the wearer's facial construction. Someone with a rounder face may crop his goatee one way, while a person with a longer face may treat it differently.

In India, the goatee is sometimes referred to as a Bulganin, after Bulganin who sported one.[1][2]

Similar facial hair styles

19th century English explorer Richard Francis Burton wearing a distinctive goatee in the "French Fork" style.
  • The royale (or impériale) – a tuft of hair under the lower lip without a goatee, perhaps worn with a moustache, as worn by the younger Napoleon III of France - a vandyke in English-speaking terms. While the royale was historically worn by French officers as a badge or adornment of military rank or status, it is not technically a goatee. It is sometimes referred to as a "soul patch" or flavor savor.
  • Tiered goatee – a goatee that has variable lengths of hair to create a multi-leveled beard. This is used to create some sort of distinction between different sections of a beard.
  • Circle beard (or moutee) – a goatee and mustache which are connected by hair on each side of the mouth to form a complete circle.
  • Rico – a very fine arrow-pointed goatee. It can also be worn with a soul patch. The soul patch does not connect with the goatee. It is worn by master cigar maker George Rico.
  • Chin Bush/Chin Shrub - similar to the goatee, but kept to a cleaner cut
  • vandyke - mustache and goatee, not necessarily connected.

Goatees in fiction

In Doctor Who, the Doctor's arch enemy the Master wears a circle beard (goatee with connected mustache) in his two most prominent incarnations played by different actors. However several fictional protagonists sport a goatee, such as Half-Life's Gordon Freeman, and comic book characters Green Arrow and Tony Stark.

Star Trek

In Mirror, Mirror, an episode of the television series Star Trek, the crew encountered evil counterparts of themselves. The evil version of Spock was distinguished by a goatee. This practice of identifying otherwise identical evil doubles as having a goatee has since been used many times in popular culture. Examples include Mystery Science Theater 3000 (episode "Last of the Wild Horses"), South Park (episode "Spookyfish" in which Cartman's evil twin is actually good), Futurama (episode "Lesser of Two Evils" which introduced Flexo, which happens to be the "good" version of Bender), Family Guy (episode 5x02, "Mother Tucker"), Knight Rider (Garth Knight), Megas XLR (Episodes "Rearview Mirror, Mirror Part 1 & 2", which featured a skinny and evil version of the hero), Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and the webcomic Dinosaur Comics.

References

  1. ^ Lavakare, Arvind (1999, 18 May). "Erudite angel or parasitic khalnayak?". http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/may/18arvind.htm. Retrieved 2009, 26 Sepetmber. 
  2. ^ Vijayaker, Pradeep (2009, February 1). "Cricket mourns loss of 'Bearded Wonder'". http://www.aipsmedia.com/index.php?page=news&cod=3025&tp=n. Retrieved 2009, 26 Sepetmber. 

See also


Translations: Goatee
Top

Dansk (Danish)
n. - gedebukkeskæg, fipskæg

Nederlands (Dutch)
sik

Français (French)
n. - barbiche

Deutsch (German)
n. - Spitzbart, Kinnbart

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - υπογένειο, (μυτερό) μουσάκι

Italiano (Italian)
pizzo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cavanhaque (m)

Русский (Russian)
козлиная бородка

Español (Spanish)
n. - perilla, barbas de chivo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bockskägg

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
山羊胡子, 胡子

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 山羊鬍子, 鬍子

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 염소의 수염, (사람의) 뾰족한 턱수염

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - やぎひげ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) لحيه قصيرة مشذبه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮זקן-תיש‬


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Goatee" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

Mentioned in