Is Mrs an abbreviation?

[cornsilt]

?

MadamDeathstare is right

Thank you. Dh said missus

That's fascinating - thanks for posting!

cornsilt - your DH is right in a way, in that Missus is a derivation/contraction of Mistress.

Like Ma'am (with lots of variant spellings, Mam/Mum/Marm) is a contraction of Madam.

Oh no - don't say that!

ello corny
came to enlighten you but someone else has beaten me to it

Are you a mistress or a missus then giggle?

funny how for children they always seem to write it in full; Master DS

any of that then corny. you've seen my fb profile pic lol
I just hate the people who want to be "Ms". You're either married or you're not, omg I am ranting - that is another thread entirely

oo I am a Ms. Go on, rant. I can take it

Ms is a bit poncey - no?

I use it for 2 reasons

first because it annoys me that women are supposed to be defined by their marital status in a way that men aren't (unreconstructed old feminist, me)

second because when I married DH I kept my own surname so it feels odd being Miss (because I'm not) but equally odd being Mrs Visiter because that's my mum!

third because I like pissing off call centre people when they say "is that Miss, or Mrs?" in a perky voice, and I say "MS" in a passive agressive growl

Seriously though I don't really care if someone calls me Miss, Mrs or Ms, it's just the box I choose to tick on the form.

2 reasons? Evidently it's too early to start counting correctly

I'm Ms because H & I are separated. Technically I'm married but I don't want to be. I was Miss when I was young, but not young now , so Ms is ideal.

Mr is an abbreviation of Mister, not Master.

Yes but Mister is derived from Master - so it all comes to the same thing in the end.

It was worth doing a PhD just to avoid being a Ms or a Mrs

But isn't Miss also an abbreviation of Mistress?

I remember reading something set in Colonial America (we read it at school, so it must have been considered authentic enough), in which a young, unmarried woman was "Mistress X" and married women "Goodwife Y" (or Goody Y). I thought that gave quite a lot of dignity to the unmarried young woman!