12/13/2018 TIL: Mr. And Mrs.

TIL: Mr. And Mrs. wasn’t originally short form for mister and missus, but master and mistress : todayilearned

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this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2018
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TIL: Mr. And Mrs. wasn’t originally remember me reset password login
82 short form for mister and missus,
but master and mistress
(blog.oxforddictionaries.com)
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submitted 2 hours ago by twelveinchmeatlong
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You learn something new every day; what did

[–] zippy72 14 points 2 hours ago you learn today?
Submit interesting and specific facts that you
While nowadays “master” is someone too young to just found out (not broad information you looked
marry and “mistress” is someone the “mister” is up, TodayILearned is not /r/wikipedia).
having an affair with...
Ah, English... never knowingly straightforward...
Posting rules
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I. Submissions must be verifiable.
[–] ThrudTheBarbarian 7 points 2 hours ago Please link directly to a reliable source
that supports every claim in your post
Mistress is commonly used for the female partner title. Images alone do not count as
valid references. Videos are fine so
when a man is having an affair, but it's also just a long as they come from reputable
synonym of Mrs, typically when using the surname sources (e.g. BBC, Discovery, etc).
eg: "Mistress Weatherwax". I've heard it used that II. No personal opinions, anecdotes
or subjective statements (e.g "TIL
way in the UK at least. xyz is a great movie").
III. No recent sources. Any sources
Also used for female teachers (or generally, a
(blog, article, press release, video,
woman in a position of authority, cf: etc.) with a publication date more
recent than two months are not
Headmistress) and for a skilled woman - she being allowed.
a mistress of her craft. IV. No submissions regarding or related to
the following
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12/13/2018 TIL: Mr. And Mrs. wasn’t originally short form for mister and missus, but master and mistress : todayilearned
[–] zippy72 3 points an hour ago
I know, but that does rather spoil the joke :)
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[–] sumelar [score hidden] 20 minutes ago
All languages evolve. English is no different.
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[–] drunkennewbie [score hidden] 18 minutes ago
Doesn't stop somone from being offended it
was once used that way in the past.
Female + Male is a perfect example.
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[–] to_the_tenth_power 3 points 2 hours ago
It may come as a surprise that ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs’ aren’t
actually short for mister and missus – they were
originally abbreviations of master and mistress.
‘Mistress’ used to be the title prefixed to the name
of a married woman, a usage dating back to the
15th century, as these early examples in the
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) show:
1463 in S. Tymms Wills & Inventories Bury St.
Edmunds (1850) 36, I … be qwethe to my
maistresse Clopton a spoon of berell.
1471 J. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004)
I. 443 Iff it come to Mestresse Elysabeȝ
Hyggens … sche schall comveye it to me.
The use of ‘Mistress’ to denote a married woman is
now the least common meaning of the word: it
only survives as a dialect form in some parts of the
world.
I can't imagine speaking in that manner on a daily
basis.
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[–] Yasea 3 points an hour ago
U wot m8?
Just wondering what the future will think of us.
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[–] Gemmabeta 1 point 1 hour ago
And if you want to be really pedantic about it. Old
school etiquette stipulates that you can only use Mrs
with the husband's name.
So Jane Smith (the wife of John Smith), is properly
addressed as Mrs John Smith (I.e. mistress of John
Smith).
https://old.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/a5viy9/til_mr_and_mrs_wasnt_originally_short_form_for/
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You are only allowed to call her Mrs Jane Smith if she about the TILs on this list use the search box
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is divorced. And married women from way back when TILs.
would take grave offense if you called them that way.
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