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Originally, Mrs was used with a woman's own first name and married surname. Abigail Adams, for example, was addressed as Mrs. Abigail Adams. [8] In the 19th century, it became common to use the husband's first name instead of the wife's. Jane Austen gave some of the earliest examples of that form when she wrote of Mrs. John Dashwood. [7]
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 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 ...
Madam (/ ˈ m æ d əm /), or madame (/ ˈ m æ d əm / or / m ə ˈ d ɑː m /), [1] is a polite and formal form of address for women in the English language, often contracted to ma'am [2] (pronounced / ˈ m æ m / in American English [2] and this way but also / ˈ m ɑː m / in British English [3]).
The titles Mrs., Miss and Ms. are abbreviations derived from Mistress. Mastress is an obsolete form. [1] [2] [3] See also. Master (form of address) References
The modern plural form is Misters [citation needed], although its usual formal abbreviation Messrs(.) [note 1] derives from use of the French title messieurs in the 18th century. [ 2 ] [ 5 ] Messieurs is the plural of monsieur (originally mon sieur , "my lord "), formed by declining both of its constituent parts separately.
Ms. (American English) [1] or Ms (British English; [2] normally / ˈ m ɪ z /, but also / m ə z /, or / m ə s / when unstressed) [3] [4] is an English-language honorific used with the last name or full name of a woman, intended as a default form of address for women regardless of marital status. [5]
Miss (pronounced / ˈ m ɪ s /) is an English-language honorific typically used for a girl, for an unmarried woman (when not using another title such as "Doctor" or "Dame"), or for a married woman retaining her maiden name. Originating in the 17th century, it is a contraction of mistress. The plural of Miss is Misses or occasionally Mses. [1]