pl.n.

Growths of hair down the sides of a man's face in front of the ears, especially when worn with the rest of the beard shaved off.

[Alteration of BURNSIDES.]

Origin: 1887

Who says America has not been a leader in men's fashion? Not only have we provided the world with Bluejeans (1855), cowboy boots (1895), leisure suits (1975), and baseball caps, but we have also defined two distinctive styles of facial hair.

One cropped up in the 1840s. It became fashionable then for men to trim their chin whiskers into a shape that looked like the beard of a goat and thus earned the designation goatee. "A few individuals," remarked an 1844 book on Oregon, "have what is called, by some of their politer neighbors, a 'goaty' under the chin."

Even more significant was the facial fashion statement of Ambrose Burnside, who came to prominence as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War and later served as governor of Rhode Island and U.S. senator from that state. Burnside had mixed success both in battle and in fashion. He was named commander of the Army of the Potomac but was relieved of his command after losing the battle of Fredericksburg in 1862. He wore a soft hat with the crown pushed out, a style that survived for a decade or two after the war with the name Burnside. But he was most renowned for a kind of beard that was the opposite of the goatee: side whiskers and moustache, with a clean-shaven chin. The style was known, naturally, as Burnside's.

By itself, this word for his hairstyle had no meaning other than the name of its originator. But as memory of the general and senator faded, Burnside's was mistakenly heard as burnsides, a plural, seeming to refer to the two prominent sides of hair. With that interpretation, side was in the wrong place; burn sides is puzzling, side burns a perfectly understandable phrase. Isn't that right? Etymologically, no; logically, yes. "McGarigle has his mustache and small side burns still on," announced the Chicago Journal for August 1, 1887. And so, through the effort of making a word make sense, sideburns entered American English and remained, allowing us to describe the look of Elvis Presley and others in the century to come.

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IN BRIEF: n. - Beard grown down a man's face in front of the ears (especially when the rest of the beard is shaved off).

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Dansk (Danish)
n. pl. - bakkenbarter

Nederlands (Dutch)
bakkebaarden

Français (French)
n. pl. - pattes

Deutsch (German)
n. pl. - Backenbart

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. pl. - φαβορίτες

Italiano (Italian)
basette

Português (Portuguese)
n. pl. - costeletas (f pl), suíças (f pl)

Русский (Russian)
короткие баки

Español (Spanish)
n. pl. - patillas

Svenska (Swedish)
n. pl. - polisonger

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
连鬓胡子, 鬓脚

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. pl. - 連鬢鬍子, 鬢腳

한국어 (Korean)
n. pl. - 짧은 구렛나루

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 揉み上げ, 頬髭

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الجمع) ألسبله ألخديه, شاربان خديان قصيران‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. pl. - ‮פיאות-לחיים‬

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