Where did the surnames like Mrs., Ms., Miss, and Mr. come from and what do they abreviate?

Answer 1

Mrs. is an abbreviation for "mistress," the feminine form of "mister," which in turn originally meant "master." Over time, the pronunciation of the married title slurred, and the term came to mean "paramour" or "kept woman" when pronounced in full. At that point, respectable married women ceased to ever spell out the title, and it has existed as a mumbled abbreviation ever since.

Hope this helped!!

Answer 2

Originally, the head of a household, or estate was referred to as "master" and his wife was the "mistress" of the house. Master later became Mister. The abreviations became Mr. and Mrs. Miss was used for unmarried women of marrying age. Youngsters were not known by any titles.

In the 1970's the term Ms. (pronounced Mizz) became popular for women to use. The arguemetn for the term was that Mr. (Mister) did not denote whether married or NON married and Mrs and Miss DID denote this. Women wanted to be able to be known as a female without the denomination of whether they were married. Ms. was born at this time. The choise to use Mrs./Miss or Ms. is up to the woman using it.

Answer 3

They're just part of etiquette in the English language. Other languages have them too. French had Madam, Monsuer etc... Spanish has Senor, Senora, Senoritta etc.... In English Mrs. = Misses, it indicates a married woman; Ms. = Miss it indicates a woman who is not married or you are unsure about her marital status; and Mr. = Mister, it indicates a man married or unmarried.

Answer 4

Most of them like Mister and Misses are dialect for Master and Mistress dating back to fuedal England. However, Ms. is a modern invention by Gloria Steinem and other first wave feminists who did not believe that an abbrieviation before a woman's name should indicate her marital status because they felt it was no one's business c. 1968?-1972? unsure

Answer 5

Misses, Miss, Mister...