mush

(moosh)

n

British

1.

the face. A word which has been in use since the 19th century, when it often referred specifically to the mouth. Mush is nearly always used in connection with fisticuffs and may have originated as pugilists' slang. The precise etymology of the word is uncertain, but it has obvious connotations of softness and mastication.

2a.

an all-purpose term of address to a stranger (invariably used by men to other men). A working-class, mainly London, usage which was common in the 1950s and 1960s but is now rarely used. The word is not particularly friendly and is quite often used provocatively. It comes from the Romany word for man, moosh. 'I suggest you buy better shirts in future. Are you asking for a punch up the fag-hole, mush?'

(Hancock's Half Hour, BBC TV comedy, 6 November 1959)

2b.

a man, unnamed person. The deriva-tion for this usage is as for the previous sense. The word has rarely been used thus (rather than as a term of address) since the 1950s.