Which honorific is used to address a married woman in English-speaking countries?
Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard English pronunciation: /ˈmɪsɪz/) is a commonly used English honorific for women, usually for those who are married and who do not instead use another title (or rank), such as Dr, Professor, President, Dame, etc.
'Mrs' originated as a contraction of the honorific 'Mistress' (the feminine of 'Mister' or 'Master') which was originally applied to both married and unmarried women. The split into 'Mrs' for married women and 'Miss' for unmarried began during the 17th century; the 17th century also saw the coinage of a new unmarked option 'Ms' with a return of this usage appearing in the 20th century.
More Info:
en.wikipedia.org
What are your thoughts on this subject?
9 Comments
Flavio
Dona>Italian, Frau>German, Senhora>Portuguese.
Jaimi McEntire
Pat Wells, Maybe where you live, but in the midwest, married women are still "mrs" and proud of it.
buhlemann
I wonder if there is a printable honorific for those who make up questions like this...
Pat Wells
Not used in the United States as it once was. Many women, married or not, go by Ms. Men don't have two prefixes, even if they're married, so why should women. It's a little more old school in the British Isles.
earlepg
Rodney Wilkinson, Plums is retired (not that "retired" is absolutely defining).
Morton Bartlett
Plums, Thats what an honorific is "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 but "Mrs." if married; more recently, a third, "Ms.", became the more prevalent norm, mainly owing to the desire to avoid identifying women by their marital status.
Jacqueline Tattam
Plums, it is possible to care about more than one issue that affects you or others around you. And yes, removing sexist terms is important.
Rafi Manory
The question should be rephrase to indicate that this used to be the case. Today people are not sure what is a woman, even a Supreme Court Judge is not sure. So you are differentiating between a married and an unmarried woman? This is ancient history!
Plums
Not an honorific name at all...just a prefix conferred to women after marriage