Bewhisker

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Covers something, or someone's face, with a growth of whiskers or bristly hairs
2. Adorns a surface or face with whisker-like hairs or fine bristles
3. Fills or decorates an area with whiskers, as with a coat of stiff bristly hair

Etymology: "Bewhisker" is a plain formation: the prefix "be-", meaning "at, on, upon", attached to "whisker". The sense it carries is literal, to cover or adorn something with whiskers, and the joke is in how physically specific that is. Its earlier use in English was equally concrete, describing a face or a creature so furred it looked as though it had whiskers sprouting over it. The prefix is the older and more productive part of the story. Old English "be-" was used to build verbs that act on something from all sides or cover it, as in "bedeck" or "besmear", and English speakers kept adding it to nouns this way for centuries. "Whisker" itself comes from a Middle English form, "whisker" or "whiskere", derived from "whisk", a word for a brushing or sweeping motion, so the whiskers were named after the way they brush against things.