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In the English language, an honorific is a form of address conveying esteem, courtesy or respect. These can be titles prefixing a person's name, e.g.: Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Mx, Sir, Dame, Dr, Cllr, Lady, or Lord, or other titles or positions that can appear as a form of address without the person's name, as in Mr President, General, Captain, Father, Doctor, or Earl.
The separation of Miss and Mrs. became problematic as more women entered the white-collar workforce because it was difficult to change names and titles when they had already established a career. Women who became famous or well known in their professional circles before marriage often kept their birth names, stage names, or pen names.
The most common honorifics in modern English are usually placed immediately before a person's name. Honorifics used (both as style and as form of address) include, in the case of a man, "Mr." (irrespective of marital status), and, in the case of a woman, previously either of two depending on marital status: "Miss" if unmarried and "Mrs." if married, widowed, or divorced; more recently, a third ...
Miss and Mrs., both derived from the then formal Mistress, like Mister did not originally indicate marital status. [8] [9] Ms. was another acceptable abbreviation for Mistress in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. [10] During the 19th century, however, Mrs. and Miss came to be associated almost exclusively with marital status. [11]
The Four Hundred was a list of New York society during the Gilded Age, a group that was led by Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, the "Mrs. Astor", for many years. After her death, her role in society was filled by three women: Mamie Fish , Theresa Fair Oelrichs , and Alva Belmont , [ 2 ] known as the "triumvirate" of American society.
Mister, usually written in its contracted form Mr. or Mr, [1] is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. [1] The title Mr derived from earlier forms of master, as the equivalent female titles Mrs, Miss, and Ms all derived from earlier forms of mistress.
The meanings of both Miss and Mrs underwent transformations over time. Historically, these titles did not solely indicate marital status. [2] Even after the adoption of Miss by many adult single women in 18th-century England, Mrs continued to signify social or business standing, rather than merely marital status, until at least the mid-19th century.
Goodwife (Scots: Guidwife), usually abbreviated Goody, was a polite form of address for women, formerly used how Mrs., Miss and Ms. are used today. Its male counterpart is Goodman. However, a woman addressed by this title was of a lesser social rank than a woman addressed as Mistress.