The Difference Between Miss, Mrs., and Ms.
November 5, 2009 by blackgirlgrown
Filed under grammar
Every time I fill out an application or form, more often than not I am given the choice of Miss, Mrs., or Ms. And until Prince Charming arrives my only choices (and confusion) have been Miss or Ms. Perhaps smarter people than I are aware of the differences. But until I read the recent On Language column by Ben Zimmer in the New York Times Magazine I had no clue.
According to Ben Zimmer of visualthesaurus.com, an online destination for word lovers:
In the Nov. 10, 1901, edition of The Sunday Republican of Springfield, Mass., tucked away in an item at the bottom of Page 4, an unnamed writer put forth a modest proposal. “There is a void in the English language which, with some diffidence, we undertake to fill,” the writer began. “Every one has been put in an embarrassing position by ignorance of the status of some woman. To call a maiden Mrs. is only a shade worse than to insult a matron with the inferior title Miss. Yet it is not always easy to know the facts.”
How to avoid this potential social faux pas? The writer suggested “a more comprehensive term which does homage to the sex without expressing any views as to their domestic situation,” namely, Ms. With this “simple” and “easy to write” title, a tactfully ambiguous compromise between Miss and Mrs., “the person concerned can translate it properly according to circumstances.” The writer even gave a pronunciation tip: “For oral use it might be rendered as ‘Mizz,’ which would be a close parallel to the practice long universal in many bucolic regions, where a slurred Mis’ does duty for Miss and Mrs. alike.”
There you have it. Ms. Demystified.
