In the 19th century, the slang term door-knocker referred to a beard-and-mustache combo that ringed the mouth in the shape of a metal ring used to tap on a door. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Door-Knocker Beard”
Here’s another slang term from the 1909 book Passing English of the Victorian Era.
The term is door knocker. Any idea what a door knocker is?
Somebody goes raising funds from door to door? I don’t know. Somebody who’s got a thick head.
And you bang it against the door to put some sense into them?
It has to do with the head, actually.
A door knocker is a ring-shaped beard formed by the cheeks and chin being shaved, leaving a chain of hair under the chin, and upon each side of the mouth, forming with the mustache something like a door knocker.
Oh, it’s kind of like the chin strap beard.
Yes.
They still actually wear that in New York, kind of, only there’s usually no mustache.
It’s just a fringe of hair along the jawline.
Yes, yes, or baristas in coffee shops, yes.
