Ms.

Ms. ( American ) or Ms ( British ), speaking mɪz with voiced "s" at the end, is an English form of address that the family name of a woman is prefixed. The rarely used plural form of Ms. is Mses. or Mss. Unlike the traditional forms of address Miss (pronounced ˈmɪs with voiceless “s”, corresponds to the outdated “ Fräulein ”) and Mrs./Mrs (originally from Mistress , but spoken for short ˈmɪsɨz or ˈmɪsɨs , therefore also written in German as Misses ) this salutation does not recognize whether the addressed woman is married or not. This corresponds to the male salutation Mister (Mr./Mr) , which also does not reveal this.

history

Although nowadays it is often assumed that the form Ms. was a word creation of modern feminism , the salutation was used as an abbreviation of Mistress sporadically as early as the 18th century. The mistress was the name given to the woman in the house, regardless of whether she was married or not. Since the 1970s, this form has become more and more the rule, especially in business use. You can also use this form when you are not sure whether a woman is married. A mistress was also a mistress ( other meanings : lover, mistress, mistress, teacher).

European equivalents

In other European languages, comparable forms of address are used, which apply equally to married and unmarried women and which are the female forms of the male salutation customary in each country:

Woman (the previous restriction to married women has now been abandoned in German)
Fru (Swedish)
Domina (lat.)
Madame (French)
Mevrouw (ndl.)
Señora (span.)
Senhora (port.)
Signora (ital.)
Doamna (Romanian)
Panelė (lit.)
Pani (Polish)
Paní (cze.)

In the languages mentioned above, however, the English Miss corresponds to the following diminutive of the forms mentioned:

young lady
Dominula (lat.)
Mademoiselle (French)
(Me) Juffrouw (ndl.)
Señorita (Spanish)
Senhorita (port.)
Signorina (ital.)
Domnişoara (Romanian)
Panna (Polish)
Slečna (cze.)