A bit of hair over your top lip is called a moustache. It can even extend down vertically to your chin.
A beard is hair on your chin and the underside of your face. Interestingly it’s also a beard even if some hair covers your top lip.
The ven diagram might look something like this:
——————————-
| beard | beard | moustache |
——————————-
Which is a bit weird….
So, should we have a new word for the marriage of chin and/or under-face (not sure if that’s really a word) hair (aka beard) and top lip hair (aka moustache)?
What should it be?
/discuss
I think “beard” should remain as the full setup, i.e. hairy chin and moustache, but a new name should be sought for those people who have a “beard” but no moustache:
http://herrick.alfred.edu/special/archives/images/beard_grower1956_lg.jpg
Might I propose “chin fringe”?
OOooo – I like that!