etiquette of mr miss mrs etc

[jh004j7891]

does anyone know what mr, mrs, miss especially ms shands for I have been divorced for several years and have classed myself as ms, is this right? as i have now been told that this stands for master. help!

[burnhal]

I always thought the abbreviation for master was the same as that for Mister.
Miss, Mrs and Ms are all derived from mistress (of the household). At one time Mrs denoted an unmarried woman as did Miss!
Mister is derived from Master (of the household!) so it is only in comparatively recent times that master has come to represent the boy and Mister the man. Generally speaking
Mister- Man
Master- Boy
Miss- Unmarried woman
Mrs - Married woman
Ms- ANY woman

[jno]

Ms is fine - it tells people you're female but doesn't reveal whether you're married or not, just as Mr doesn't. You could call yourself Miss, especially if you've reverted to your maiden name.

[jno]

PS burnhal is right, Mr stands for Mister and may do for Master as well; Ms doesn't really stand for anything but it's definitely female and is usually pronounced mizz.

[spudqueen]

I've always thought that Mstr was the abbreviation for Master.

[n00dles]

Back when women first burnt their bras, there was a general consensous amongst them (feminists), that it was unfair that men could be addressed as Mr, irrespective of them being single or married. To counter this, they chose to be addressed as Ms (Mizz) so as not to be discriminated against whether they were married or not. Unfortunately, lots of companies adopted this form of address on letters, when unaware of a womans' marital status, (and not wishing to offend her). So most junk mail aimed at us ladies has MS on it!!

[jh004j7891]

Thank you to everyone who answered!!!
it was lovely to finally find out that I was right!!