Miss or Mrs. in what. Miss or Mrs.

MRS, or MISTRESS is the same as the French “madame” when addressing a married English woman, i.e. mistress, madam. A complete dictionary of foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language. Popov M., 1907. Mrs. (English mistress) in English-speaking ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

MRS, uncl., female (English mistress, pronounced Mrs.). The name of an untitled married woman and the form of addressing her in England and America; the same as mistress in tsarist Russia. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

Madam, address Dictionary of Russian synonyms. Mrs. noun, number of synonyms: 3 Mrs. (27) Mrs. ... Dictionary of synonyms

MRS, uncl., female In English-speaking countries: a polite way of addressing a married woman (usually before her first or last name). Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Mrs.- Mrs. - [A.S. Goldberg. English-Russian energy dictionary. 2006] Topics energy in general Synonyms Mrs. EN MistressMrs ... Technical Translator's Guide

Noun, g., used. often In English-speaking countries, the word Mrs. is a form of polite address for a married woman, which is used before the first or last name. Mrs Higgins. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by Dmitriev. D. V. Dmitriev. 2003 ... Dmitriev's Explanatory Dictionary

Mrs.- uncl., w. In England and America: an address to or polite reference to a married woman, usually used before the surname. Mrs Stewart. Etymology: From English missis ‘Mrs.’, ‘Mrs.’ (← mistress ‘Mistress’, ‘Mistress’) ... Popular dictionary of the Russian language

Neskl. and.; = Mrs. Used as an address or form of polite reference to a married woman in English-speaking countries, usually attached to the surname or given name. Ephraim's explanatory dictionary. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by Efremova

Mrs.- m issis, uncl., w... Russian spelling dictionary

Mrs.- uncl., w... Spelling dictionary of the Russian language

Books

Mrs. Poe, Cullen Lynn. A piquant love story in a gothic setting. The great American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe, his young wife Virginia and poetess Frances Osgood are a love triangle born…
Mrs. Poe, Cullen L.. A piquant love story in a gothic setting. The great American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe, his young wife Virginia and poetess Frances Osgood are a love triangle born…

Many of us confuse the titles Miss and Mrs. How they differ and who they relate to, we’ll figure that out now. We’ll also dive into the history of these appeals to better understand the essence of these titles for women. Mrs. in English sounds like " mistress“, which literally means “hostess”.

The history of the origin of "Miss" and "Mrs."

Miss has a multi-layered story. The meanings of the word "mistress" from the Oxford Dictionary are defined by the following meanings:

The woman who rules.
Qualified woman.
Woman teacher.
Beloved or mistress.

Definitions of the meaning of a word are a striking example of the evolution of address to women. At the end of the eighteenth century, unmarried women of advanced age were equated in society with married women, still calling them Mrs., which has become a tradition to this day.

Gradually, girls changed from Miss to Mrs. upon entering adulthood, or after the death of their mother. The process of change can be traced in the literary usage of authors of those times. Until the early eighteenth century there was no form of address preceding the name. But already from the mid-eighteenth century, “Miss” began to be used rather as a derogatory term, as village boys addressed their mistresses.

The author of the famous diary of the daily life of Londoners during the Stuart Restoration, Samuel Pepys, clearly used "little miss" only for girls.

In letters from 1754, miss appears as a general form of address, perhaps even to teenagers.

Between 1695 and 1706, a high percentage of remaining unmarried women were branded with the phrase "spinster", and in colloquial situations "maiden" was used. Thus, concern was expressed about the decrease in the number of marriages. But this passion for promoting marriage seems too distant in time to inspire the nickname Miss. Moreover, its use was socially limited.

However, Miss's appeal to adult women did coincide with the increase in population in London. The distinction based on marriage may have been adopted from the French. During the long eighteenth century, lower-middle-class French women were described as "mademoiselles", regardless of marital status.

Active use of appeals in society

It is worth noting that the industrial boom contributed to the popularization of the address “Miss”. The expansion of the areas in which women were involved, the increase in communication connections and involvement in social processes, contributed to a change in the perception of the role of women in society. According to some sources, the distinction between the concepts of “Miss” and “Mrs.” arose as an unspoken definition of sexually available women when large numbers of them went to work in factories. A much more down-to-earth explanation is that it was a fashion of the eighteenth-century literati who grew old and gradually expanded its social application to become part of English culture.

Miss seems to be one of the few words to describe English women who have successfully raised the quality of its status - from being defined as frivolous ladies to being treated in high society.

Long-term use of "Mrs." Typically, women who were referred to as "Madam" and "Dame" in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were called "Mrs" by the eighteenth century. "Madame" remained in use into the eighteenth century, at least outside London.

The association of the word "Mrs" with business can be seen in surviving archival censuses taken for the Essex market town of Bocking in 1793. Among the 650 families, fifty were headed by men who received the title Mister. These people were farmers, grocers, millers, manufacturers and other significant merchants. Twenty-five of the women heading their households were called Mrs. Almost two-thirds of these titled Mrs.s were identified in business. On rare occasions, Mrs. appears in business company records, usually the context makes it clear that its use denotes social rather than marital status.

History presents conflicting explanations for the introduction of the title "Miss". One of them is that women are tired of identifying themselves with men.

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the use of "Mrs." has more often created confusion. For example, editor Mary Wortley corrected Mrs to Miss to avoid the misconception among readers that the correspondent was married.
Throughout the period, England was the only country in Europe in which married women, who usually took their husbands' surnames, were a kind of hostage to the characteristic regime of matrimonial property. But then, she had the right to the social status of Mrs., which was accompanied by her own name and her husband's surname.

Taking into account that the “miss” uniform was even desirable for some segments of the population.

Miss and Mrs, our days

In the twentieth century, “Mrs.” and “Miss” acquired their final statuses, which determine when addressing whether a woman is married or not. Regarding the definition of “Miss,” it is also worth noting that this is a generally accepted address if a person does not want to focus on his marital status.

How to approach a stranger in Russia? There is no universal appeal: girl, young lady - everyone uses these and other options in accordance with their own taste. For foreigners, things are somewhat better with this: fröken and fru in Sweden, frölein and frau in Germany, senorita and senora in Spain, mademoiselle and madam in France, miss and missus in England, the USA, Australia, Canada and a number of others. There doesn't seem to be much difference between these words. And yet there are nuances that not everyone knows.

It would seem, why so strictly separate Mrs. and Miss? The difference is two letters, but a lot of questions arise. What is the best way to approach a stranger? A large number of doubts arise if it concerns not personal communication, but business correspondence.

The difference between Miss and Mrs. is that the former is applied to unknown young and unmarried women, while the latter is applied only to married and widowed women. "Mrs." can be called an older lady if there is no certainty about her marital status.

When a surname is added to the address, you need to carefully choose between “Mrs.” and “Miss.” The difference is still the same - However, in this case, ladies are a little more likely to be offended if you say "Mrs." to an unmarried woman. Therefore, if in any doubt, it is better to use the “girlish” option. As a last resort, you can apologize and give some nice compliment.

As for here, the situation has long been simpler, since the neutral version of “Ms” is increasingly being used, which does not focus on the marital status of the interlocutor. Although in some

In cases that will be discussed a little later, "Miss" and "Mrs." are also used in official letters. There is a difference here too, although in general the neutral "Ms." is used. or “Ms” - the presence or absence of a dot depends on whether the correspondence is with a European or an American.

And yet, in some cases, marital status can and should be emphasized. This is done, for example, in official invitations to certain events when they are intended

the whole family. Then there is a listing: Mr, Mrs and Miss, if we are talking about a man, his wife and daughter. Obviously, in such cases, the use of neutral addresses is absolutely inappropriate; “Mrs.” and “Miss” will look more organic. The difference between this and other cases is that here the emphasis on the kinship and marital status of the ladies is absolutely natural.

But perhaps in the future something neutral will be used in these cases, since feminist sentiments are raging in Europe. Women are not inclined to advertise their marital status, so they consider the use of separate addresses to married and unmarried ladies to be sexist. Last year in France it was already prohibited to use the address “mademoiselle” in official documents, which was replaced by “madame”.

So, in the addresses “Mrs.” and “Miss” the difference is still quite large. And the point here is not in his marital status, but rather in the attitude of those around him. In the future, perhaps, there will still be one thing left not only in business correspondence, but also in personal communication, but for now it remains to puzzle over which word is best to use.

In English, married women and girls are addressed differently. This culture took hold in the 17th century, and continues to this day, despite the position of modern society on the principle of gender equality.

Address in English miss or mrs

Etiquette norms that have taken root in English-speaking countries require distinguishing between speech and writing when addressing women of different social status. When a woman introduces herself in society, she gives not only her first and last name. The rules of good manners oblige her or the person who represents her to put before her name an address characterizing her marital status.

The status of a woman in Western society is usually designated by a special word. There are no analogues to such treatment in Russian culture, or they are extremely weakly expressed. Addressing women to indicate her status was typical as part of her title of nobility, if she possessed one.

In general, this division of statuses is not typical for Russian culture, therefore the English “Miss” and “Mrs.” cannot be unambiguously compared with addresses in Russian speech.

In English-speaking society, there are norms for the use of such addresses:

Miss– an appeal to a girl, most often used in relation to young people under 18 years of age. In addition, with the prefix Miss you can address a teacher, saleswoman, or maid. Also, this appeal is considered most appropriate if the woman’s status is unknown.
Mrs.- a traditional form of addressing a married lady. In this case, after the address, you can call both the woman’s own name and the name of her husband. Divorced women and widows are named after missis by their maiden name and surname.

Pronunciation

The Miss address in transcription looks like this:

The obsolete word Mistress, which is rarely used orally, is pronounced . More often this word has the meaning of “mistress”, “mistress” or “mistress”.

For example:

Mistress of the situation - Mistress of the situation.
Costumemistress - Chief costume designer.
The dog ran alongside his mistress - The dog ran next to its mistress.

A derivative of Mistress, which over time became the independent word missis, it is pronounced as follows: . Literally translated, missis means “wife.”

Usage

In English, in oral speech miss and mistress are used in specific situations:

Miss – an address to an unmarried person or a school teacher, regardless of her marital status, for example:

He was finished at Miss A.’s – She was educated at Miss A.’s boarding house.
Which Miss Smith do you mean? – Which Miss Smith do you mean?

Mistress or missis- a form of polite address to a lady, married or divorced, as well as to a widow.

Examples of oral addresses

Full addresses are not used in the letter; they are replaced with abbreviations:

Miss– if it is known for sure that the lady is not married;
Mrs– if there is confidence that the woman has entered into marriage or is currently married;
Ms- a polite form of address in letters, which indicates that a person is female, but does not directly indicate marital status.

Accepted requests in letters

Dear Miss Jones! – Dear Miss Jones!
Dear Mrs. Wilson! - Dear Mrs. Wilson!
Dear Ms. Smith! – Dear Mrs. Smith!

Punctuation after abbreviation

It is customary to put punctuation marks after abbreviations in writing:

Jane Johnson – Mistress Jane Johnson
John Kelly – Mrs. John Kelly

There is no period after the word Miss, since the full form of the word is used:

Miss Dana Simms - Miss Dana Simms.

There is an opinion that the appeals to representatives of the fairer sex that are now common in Russia, such as “girl” or “woman”, are extremely indecent!.. They say that defining “girl” or “woman” is the prerogative of the gynecologist!... Thus, it turns out that using addresses like “grazhdanochka” and so on is much preferable?!....)
In pre-revolutionary Russia, the addresses “sir” and “madam” were common!...

But, for example, in the English language there are still many options for polite forms of addressing a person.

In relation to a man, the forms Mr., Sir, Esq. are used, and in relation to a woman: Mrs., Ms., Miss, Madam.

Now let's look at each of them separately.
Form Mr. can be used when addressing a man, regardless of his age and marital status. The only limitation is the fact that it must be followed by the surname of the person being addressed:
Dear Mr. Ivanov, Dear Mr. Ivanov!

When addressing several persons it is used Messrs, and to the surnames themselves there is a plural ending. –s is not added and a period is not placed after the polite form:
Messrs Thomas and Smith

If the addressee's surname is unknown, then use Sir(Sirs when addressing several persons):
Dear Sirs, Dear Sirs!

As a synonym for the form Mr. in England they sometimes use the form Esq. However, it is placed not before the name, but after it, and, naturally, in this case the form Mr. absent:
Michael S. Johnson, Esq.

For reference: This form goes back to the word esquire esquire. In medieval England, an esquire was a knight's squire, and later this word came to mean one of the lower noble titles. For some time this form was used in letters, but now it is becoming less and less common.

Form Mrs. (Mmes when addressing several women) is used when addressing a married woman, regardless of her age, and must be followed by the surname:
Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Smith!

Form Miss used in relation to an unmarried woman and must be followed by the surname:
Dear Miss Willis, Dear Miss Willis!

Form Ms.(read or) is the linguistic equivalent of the form Mr., since it is used in relation to a woman regardless of the fact of her marital status. This form was recommended by the UN in 1974 as a result of campaigns by various organizations for women's equality. It should be noted, however, that in everyday life this form is not used as often as in official correspondence, since most women prefer to use the Mrs form. (married) or Miss (unmarried). However, modern formal and even semi-formal correspondence tends strictly to use the Ms form. This form must also be followed by the last name:
Ms. S. Smith to Mrs. S. Smith

Madam(Mesdames when addressing several women) is the most formal way of addressing a woman. This form can be called the linguistic equivalent of Sir, since it is also used when the recipient's last name is unknown:
Dear Madam, Dear Madam!
Dear Mesdames Dear madams!

In addition, this form is used in writing to refer to a high-ranking woman, married or unmarried, to a queen, princess, countess, daughter of a duke, maid of honor, as well as to a woman holding an official position; with the title of the position (Madam Chairman, Madam Chairman!)

This article uses materials from the article:"English Titles"