Miss Mistress

Miss Mistress

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ron_artest

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Jul 10, 2011

Hello everyone! I was looking up for the difference between mistress a mrs. I know mrs. is the abbreviation but can you actually say for example, mistress Smith instead of Mrs. Smith? And why do you pronounce Mrs. as "Misiz"

Also, Miss is pronounced "mis". On the other hand, Ms is pronounced "miz". Is there any difference between saying Miss Jackson and Ms. Jackson? In the dictionary says that Ms is a combination of Mrs and Miss.

Thank you very much for your time!

can you actually say for example, mistress Smith instead of Mrs. Smith?

And why do you pronounce Mrs. as "Misiz"

Also, Miss is pronounced "mis". On the other hand, Ms is pronounced "miz". Is there any difference between saying Miss Jackson and Ms. Jackson? In the dictionary says that Ms is a combination of Mrs and Miss.

Thank you very much for your time!

Thank you very much Se16teddy! I totally get it now! Thank you for your time as well.
There is a lot of interesting discussion on this topic in Miss or Mrs or Ms ?

[...]Because it is quicker and easier to miss out the tr in the middle, and there is not much risk of misinterpretation if you do so. The omission of tr may be part of a regular pattern of phonetic change in the English language, but I am not sure. [...]

I'm puzzled a bit. Why is there the 'tr'? Wouldn't it make the pronunciation of 'Mrs' actually unpronouncable? Could you please write the pronunctaion with 'tr'?

I know mrs. is the abbreviation but can you actually say for example, mistress Smith instead of Mrs. Smith?

Thanks for enlightening me. Now it looks so simple...
Another reason for avoiding 'mistress' is that it has acquired a different meaning since Shakespeare's time.

http://www.wordreference.com/definition/mistress -- see meaning 3

Some women might not like being described in this way.

m

This usage is common in Shakespeare, but if you use it today people will think you are jocularly imitating the language of Shakespeare.

Because it is quicker and easier to miss out the tr in the middle, and there is not much risk of misinterpretation if you do so. The omission of tr may be part of a regular pattern of phonetic change in the English language, but I am not sure.

I usually use Ms
- if I don't know if she is a Miss or a Mrs or
- if she has indicated that she objects to the terms Mrs or Miss (on the grounds that men don't feel obliged to disclose their marital status in their name ).

If men women don't want to disclose their marital status, it's better to address them as Ms + maiden last name rather than Ms + married last name , right?
Thanks in advance!

Women are addressed the way they say they want to be addressed, using the name they have chosen to use.
So there's no question of 'better'.

If men don't want to disclose their marital status, it's better to address them as Ms + maiden last name rather than Ms + married last name , right?

Men do not traditionally or usually change their names on marriage. I don’t know any man addressed, or referred to, as Ms except perhaps some drag queens when they are in character.

The omission of tr may be part of a regular pattern of phonetic change in the English language, but I am not sure.

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Using the honorifics Miss, Ms., or Mrs. used to be a common way to address women in a formal or business setting. But as more awareness grows around nonbinary gender identities and gender-neutral pronouns and titles, these terms are becoming more and more outdated and unnecessary. However, there are ways to use the titles Miss, Ms., or Mrs. without making a potentially embarrassing or disrespectful mistake.

Avoid going into any conversation making assumptions about a person's gender or their preferred titles or pronouns. The best way to make sure you use the right words when introducing someone is to simply ask them what they prefer.

If you're introducing someone to a crowd in public, then be sure to speak with them ahead of time about their preference of honorific (if any). In person-to-person business introductions, you can simply ask, "how would you like to be addressed?" if you don't already know.

You can also just skip the titles altogether and simply use a person's name when introducing them.

Traditionally, people addressed young girls as "Miss." They also addressed an unmarried woman as "Miss," but then "Ms." became more acceptable.

Feminists first began promoting the use of the term "Ms." for women as the female counterpart to "Mr." back in the 1950s, and it gained steam in the 1970s. It can be used by any adult woman regardless of her marital status, but it refers to adult women, not girls. It was almost always better to err on the side of "Ms." if you were unsure of the woman's preferred title or marital status.

The term "Mrs." originated to refer specifically to married women, but some women prefer to keep the "Mrs." in their names even after divorce and particularly if they're widowed. It's not safe to assume that all women using "Mrs ." as a title have a current or living spouse, nor is it safe to look for a wedding ring. Most women wear them, but not all do—particularly if they'd divorced, separated, or widowed. They still might want to be addressed as "Mrs."

There's no standard for spelling for "Mrs." in the English language, although both "missus" and "missis" appear in literature.

The title "mistress" is the feminine form of "mister," but it's virtually never used these days. As is the case with "mister," "mistress" was traditionally considered to be marital-status neutral. It was used to refer to both married and unmarried women.

Eventually, "mistress" was split into two separate contractions to distinguish the marital status of the woman in question. "Miss" denoted an unmarried woman while "Mrs."—the abbreviation for "missus"—applied to married women. Women then moved back toward a less-identifying term once again, adopting "Ms ." to include all adult women regardless of marital status.

"Mistress" is now generally interpreted to mean a woman who is having an affair with a married man, so it's best to strike this term altogether from your business vernacular.

Never use the term "mistress" to identify or introduce a woman in the U.S. because it has a completely different meaning today than it did years ago, particularly in a business setting.

In 2017, Merriam-Webster added the gender-neutral honorific Mx. to its dictionary to recognize it as a title "for those who do not identify as being of a particular gender, or for people who simply don't want to be identified by gender."

Its pronunciation sounds like "mix" or "mux." People are increasingly using it in the United Kingdom, but its use isn't growing as quickly in the U.S.

Other gender-neutral options to using Mrs., Ms., or Miss include M., Ind. (for an individual), and there are many more that aren't as common.

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