The "soul patch"

[Wilson Gray]

To me, this term is "something else," to use an antiquated phrase. When
I was a little kid back in the 'Forties, I couldn't wait for my beard
to grow so that I could wear a soul patch. I'd seen young men - "big
boys" - wearing soul patches and I thought that it looked really cool.
The only time that I haven't worn a soul patch was when I was in basic
training in the Army.

What's bizarre about this tuft of whiskers adorning the underside of
the lower lip is that there was no word for it, back in the day. None
was needed, because this tuft was never referred to. Some men,
including your humble correspondent, from time to time, wore only a
soul patch on an otherwise clean-shaven face and still no one felt the
need to give it a name.

Now, for some unknown reason, people have suddenly felt the need to
name the tuft and have done so. How often is it the case that something
that been nameless for centuries, if not millennia, gets a name?

-Wilson Gray