Can anyone explain to me the mechanics of Mr., Ms., and Mrs.?

Question

I understand Mister turning into Mr. and Miss into Ms., they're abbreviated. But there does Misses (as in a married woman) turn into Mrs.?!?!

This crossed my mind earlier and has been bugging me ever since. If someone could explain why it's abbreviated as Mrs., and where it came from, that would put my mind at ease.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Mrs. originated as a contraction of the title "Mistress", the feminine of "Mister" or "Master", which was originally applied to both married and unmarried women. The title split into "Mrs." for married women and "Miss" for unmarried women during the 17th Century.

Answer 2

Mr. is an abbreviation of Mister or Master, which is also related to the French Monsieur. I believe Master itself evolved from Monsieur as it got slurred into M'sieur. Mrs. is an abbreviation of Mistress, which was a feminization of Master. Missus is also an abbreviation of Mistress and that pronounciation is the one used for Mrs. Miss is, of course, an unmarried woman.

Ms. was a title deliberately created by the feminist movement to allow for a title that doesn't draw attention to the bearer's marital status. Gloria Steinman is credited with the popularization of the use of Ms. as she launched a magazine of the same title. So, Ms. can actually be considered a true female equivalent of Mr. Of course, there is sometimes some taboo to the usage of Ms. due to its origins but this is rare to find. For the most part, Ms. is widely accepted.

Answer 3

Miss isn't abbreviated as Ms. There is no abbreviation for Miss. You're either Miss, Ms. or Mrs. Miss is a single woman, Mrs. is married, and Ms. (pronounces Mizz) is the term you use to be politically correct if you're unsure of a woman's marital status.

Answer 4

how did you get this so mixed up? "Ms." is a term of intentional non-description for a female, and wasn't fully developed until the late 1960's and the advent of feminism. the idea is to provide women with a title of address that does NOT disclose whether she is married or single. it is generally NOT an abbreviation for Miss, although I'm sure some people have used it that way.

Mr. is the abbreviated form of the French, "monsieur." Mrs. is an extension of that French simply to feminize Mr.

Remember that it was traditional to address a woman as "Mrs. Henry Blodget," and not as "Mrs. Betty Blodget." i.e., Betty didn't use her first name OR her last name once she was married. evidently, this really bothered the feminists, who proceeded in turning the whole thing into the fiasco we have today.

Answer 5

I really don't know the correct response. But, it seems interesting that Mister and Miss combine to make Mrs. The R comes from the last letter in Mister and the S comes from the last letter in Miss. And when you get married you are making a couple. Anyways, I don't know if that is where Mrs. came from but I do think its an interesting link.

Answer 6

It's an abbreviation for the word "Mistress" (think "Mister"-ess). I think it's changed to Misses (or Missus, I think actually it's always abbreviated as Mrs.) That was back when "Mistress" did not have the illicit connotation that it does today.

In case your wondering why pounds is abbreviated "lbs.", it comes from Latin (or perhaps other Latin-based languages like French and Spanish) "libre", meaning pound. Just thought I'd save you the 5 points there.

Answer 7

Mr.--Mister --m-r- adult man-married or not
Mr.--Master--m-r--male child, slave owner, or Religious Guru.
Miss-Miss--unmarried female, adult or child-if you know for sure she is not married or an medical doctor or professor
Dr. --doctor---d-r -adult doctor, married or not, male or female
Mrs.--Mistress--Missus(slang)--m-r-s-adult, married woman who has taken her husband's surname as hers, and is not a doctor or professor. This meant the Mistress of the HOUSE-not a woman who was in an illicit affair with a man.
Ms--Mizz-m-s--invented in the late '60s by feminists to address the bias that women felt in social and business situations, when we felt it was no one's business whether we were married or not, whether we could do a job or be a bright star at dinner. Prior to this, married women were often discriminated against in business and singles in social events. This is now illegal, but still done in practice, sometimes.
These days, it is considered rude to assume that a woman is married when she is not, or single when she is not. So the safe thing to do is introduce her as Ms. Lottie W, and keep it that way unless, SHE corrects you.
It is still considered ok to assume that a woman who is married has taken her husband's last name, but that is not always the case, either. There are an increasing number who keep thier given names, or who hyphenate, like Ms. Lottie W-Xylophone.

Call her Ms. Lottie W and she if she has had assertiveness training-thanks to feminists, or grown up knowing who she is, thanks to feminists everywhere, she will proudly tell you, "Call me Mrs. Harold W-Xylophone, please or Lottie."
My solution is for everyone to get a doctorate, and then be Dr. W-Xylophone, and everyone will be asking what you have a doctorate in, instead of whether you are regularly sleeping with someone.

Answer 8

Miss is not abreviated. It indicates an unmarried woman. Mrs. is the abreviation of "Missus", indicating a married woman.

Ms. comes from combining Miss and Mrs. together for a woman who wants a title that does not indicate her married status, either way.

Answer 9

Mrs. was actually originally a contraction of "Mistress" (equivalent to the male "Master" or "Mister"). Evolved over time to the overly-complicated set of Mrs., Ms., Miss, Mr., Mstr. we have now.

Answer 10

actually Miss does not turn into Ms. They are completely different.

Miss is for a girl that is not married

Ms. is for a lady who you don't know the marital status of. Because it would be rude to assume she is married when she isn't and vice versa. Ms. is a lot more respectful when talking about a woman you don't know too well.