Congratulations to Ben Zimmer, who’s been hunting the elusive “first known proposal for using the title Ms. to refer to a woman regardless of her marital status”; he’s found it on page 4 of the Springfield (Mass.) Sunday Republican of November 10, 1901: “There is a void in the English language, which, with some diffidence, we undertake to fill…” Visit his post for a scan of the article and an account of the search, which was finally resolved because the the Republican “had been digitized by America’s Historical Newspapers (Readex/NewsBank), the same database that yielded the 1916 citation for jazz from the New Orleans Times-Picayune.” Ain’t antedating fun?
Maybe so, but for me the term will always be redolent of 1970s feminism.
With respect to Ben and his interesting discovery, some of these antedates easily become misleading. The first time anyone proposed using ‘Ms’ was in 1901, but the reason was that it was inconvenient and socially embarrassing to have to choose between ‘Mrs’ and ‘Miss’; using ‘Ms’ didn’t become a feminist issue until much later — I’d guess the late sixties. Of course this isn’t Ben’s problem, but researchers don’t necessarily dig very deeply.
Yea, bathrobe!
My second and best wife was a charter member of the National Organization of Women–in the early 1970s and I clearly remember the day she came from a NOW meeting and told me about using Ms. instead of Mrs. Remember, too, Gloria Steinhem’s mag was Ms Magazine.
Feminist writers about that same time also tried to get rid of he and she and replace them with the word “co” as in coed–I tried to write an article one time using it and it became too confusing, though there were feminist writers who began using it for real–
Feminist claimed Mrs. Had MR (Mister) in it–meaning the male domination of the word–and it also referred in common use to married women. Miss on the other hand revolted them because it implied a woman to be unmarried–she missed the boat in the husband sense either because she was a little miss or a young miss or an old maid.
In Texas I’ve heard Mrs. pronounced Miz-rez–Miz-ez–or just plain Miz. I’ve only heard Ms. pronounced Miz.
thegrowlingwolf
from The Daily Growler, standing proudly as the Internet’s least-read but most despised blog.
Is there any suggestion that the feminist who coined the word was aware of the earlier coinage?
(One reason that The Daily Growler could have been the least-read if it weren’t for the contents is that when you click on thegrowlingwolf all that comes up is an invitation to open a blog on blogspot.)
Of the six meanings for “antedate” given in the OED V2, I didn’t know three:
Feminist writers about that same time also tried to get rid of he and she and replace them with the word “co” as in coed–
That was not the only proposal, there have been a number of them, not all by feminists or even by women, but it is extremely difficult to introduce a new pronoun, especially one that needs multiple forms (to replace not only he and she but him, his, her, hers). If such a generic pronoun is ever introduced, it will be because some people will use it spontaneously, not by design (think of “you all” or “you guys” or “yous”, widely used in popular usage depending on the region but not accepted in serious writing).
thegrowlingwolf: My second and best wife was a charter member of the National Organization of Women
Would that be Naomi Wolf?
I happily write ‘Ms’ (but haven’t settled on noise for it that I am comfortable with) but what type of thing is ‘Ms’? It isn’t an abbreviation unless the word of which it is the abbreviation appeared afterwards(Miz? Muz?). If it is a word in its own right, are there any others, in English, that don’t have a vowel (apart from those with a ‘Y’)?
Hmm … good question.
“Ms” could be viewed as an abbreviation of both “Miss” and “Mrs”.
Words with “y” such as “gym” do have a vowel sound, represented phonetically as [I]. The letter y is used ambiguously, but the sounds it represents are unambiguous.
It’s pronounced as in ‘misery’. One odd thing is that it’s popular in the United States, but not (so far as I know) in England. i don’t know if it’s used in other areas much, either. It’s a completely unnecessary system, really. In Norway we don’t use any of those old-fashioned forms of address, only names. Even doctors (physicians) mostly only get called by their first and last name. We’re so cool.
Germans have told me that the traditional “Frau”/”Fräulein” system has degenerated to an all-encompassing “Frau”, due, not to feminism, but to the military death toll leaving too few marriageable men for German women, & the subsequent discomfort of referring to unmarried middle-aged women (in the ’60’s) as “Fräulein”.
I have fixed thegrowlingwolf’s link so that it actually goes to his blog. Come on, it’s impressive that a wolf can write and post at all, you can’t expect him to be a URL expert! Could your goats do better?
for me the term will always be redolent of 1970s feminism.
Well, sure, and I happen to think 1970s feminism is one of the high points of that otherwise lamentable decade.
I was under the impression that both Mrs and Miss were abbreviations of an earlier form of address, Mistress, which was used for women whether married or unmarried (cf. Mistress Millamant in The Way of the World). The clever thing would have been for women to follow the example of Octavian/Augustus, and appropriate an old form for a new use. If all those in favor of women’s liberation had simply taken over Mrs, we could have had a single form of address for women very quickly (it would have been impossible for anyone to distinguish a feminist from a married woman). ‘Ms’ did not eliminate the ‘Mrs’/’Miss’ distinction, it simply introduced a new category: feminist (marital status unspecified).
I believe there are people who think it doesn’t matter. Can only say, one of the nice things about having a doctorate is that you are entitled, at a stroke, to a form of address which signals only achievement, without reference to sex or marital status.
Possibly.
‘Never underestimate goats’ is a good motto to live by.
Correct (and not just in Germany). “Fräulein” is now outright offensively old-fashioned.
Interesting. I can imagine that.
Well, I beg to differ. It was only in the 70s that the use of “Frau” to designate both married and unmarried women indifferently was introduced, so feminists (asking why unmarried men weren’t called “Herrlein”) had a lot to do with it. Before that, nobody batted an eyelid at unmarried elderly women being called “Fräulein”.
“Fräulein” is now outright offensively old-fashioned.
The things I learn around here!
“Fräulein” is now outright offensively old-fashioned.
Similarly with French “Mademoiselle” used to ladies well past the usual age of traditional marriage. But wouldn’t a girl of 17 or 18 still be called “Fräulein”?
When my mother’s brother was about 6 or 7 years old (in the 1920’s) , he said to his mother “When I grow up, I will buy you a beautiful dress and people will call you “Mademoiselle”” – probably thinking that “Mademoiselle” meant a beautiful young woman.
When I was about 40 years old I was introduced to some acquaintances of my parents (who were from the same generation as them), and one woman said to me “Bonjour Mademoiselle”. Later she must have realized that I was older than she thought, as well as a mother, so she apologize for calling me “Mademoiselle”. In earlier times a mature woman would have been thrilled to be called “Mademoiselle” which suggested that she still looked like a young lady, although not so thrilled if she was accompanied by her child or children.
“Is there any suggestion that the feminist who coined the word was aware of the earlier coinage?” (tgg)
There’s no reason why the same word shouldn’t be re-coined in ignorance of its previous existence – see http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/new-words-or-old
(hope a plug for my own blog is permitted?)
It’s pronounced “mess”, for reasons too obvious….
“When I grow up, I will buy you a beautiful dress and people will call you “Mademoiselle”
That’s a great story, it sounds like a novel.
Re: It’s pronounced as in ‘misery’. One odd thing is that it’s popular in the United States, but not (so far as I know) in England. i don’t know if it’s used in other areas much, either. It’s a completely unnecessary system, really. In Norway we don’t use any of those old-fashioned forms of address, only names. Even doctors (physicians) mostly only get called by their first and last name. We’re so cool.
Yes, you’re cool. And at this time of year you’re also more enlightened than most of us.
First-naming people would never do in Chicago. First of all it’s a diverse population and for many, the use of a title denotes respect. The lower someone is in the caste system, by occupation and minority group, the more sensitive they will be to titles. You might be able to first-name the doctor, especially if s/he is a neighbor, but the person who sweeps the floor, never.
Second, in a small town it is very likely you can know everyone you come in contact with on a day to day basis and be able to remember something about their personal lives, if they are married and have children for example. In a city of five million, that’s not going to work. If you work for example in a building that has several floors and two or three hundred employees, you’ll be lucky to even remember the last names. When I worked in such a building–and it was a very diverse group–everyone was Mr. or Ms., even people we had known personally for several years. I would find myself saying “Maria” about the person whose desk was next to mine, then have to correct myself so everyone else would know who I was talking about. Even when there were two people with the same last name, the confusion factor was less risky than the social awkwardness of having to say someone’s first name.
The idea of keeping track of who is married and who is not I think belongs to a “simpler” time when divorces were harder to get and unmarried women did not have (publicly acknowledged) children.
No, the Norwegian practice doesn’t mean calling everybody by their first name. If you were Phyllis Nijma, Norwegians who didn’t know you would call you ‘Nijma’, rather than ‘Mrs Nijma’, or ‘Miss Nijma’ (and your friends, relatives and colleagues at work would call you ‘Phyllis’, as they do the USA). So it’s no less practical, it’s merely a question of convention (there are plenty of immigrants here too; they just get used to it, if they even notice).
I do think that Norway is in most ways more enlightened than most countries I know — people here wouldn’t derive satisfaction from showing off their PhD title, no matter how hard they worked for it, because they value modesty more highly than status — unfortunately, as an immigrant myself I can’t claim any credit.
No, the Norwegian practice doesn’t mean calling everybody by their first name. If you were Phyllis Nijma, Norwegians who didn’t know you would call you ‘Nijma’, rather than ‘Mrs Nijma’, or ‘Miss Nijma’ (and your friends, relatives and colleagues at work would call you ‘Phyllis’, as they do the USA). So it’s no less practical, it’s merely a question of convention (there are plenty of immigrants here too; they just get used to it, if they even notice).
I do think that Norway is in most ways more enlightened than most countries I know — people here wouldn’t derive satisfaction from showing off their PhD title, no matter how hard they worked for it, because they value modesty more highly than status — unfortunately, as an immigrant myself I can’t claim any credit.
..friends, relatives and colleagues at work would call you [first name] as the do in the U.S.
No, no, no. Friends and relatives may use first names, but not colleagues at work. Not even after years and years.
It’s probably a national characteristic that Scandinavians don’t like the limelight. It’s generally true of us descendants of Scandihoovian immigrants too, to the point of having inspired several jokes.
For me the term will always be redolent of 70’s feminism
Back in the 70s it was pointed out that “miz”
was already being used as a title in the South, but in spoken English. A “misses” will hear it as misses and a “miss” will hear it as miss.
Nij: No, no, no. Friends and relatives may use first names, but not colleagues at work.
I just knew you were going to say that, Nij. Well, it’s nice of you to let your relatives call you by your first name.
don’t like the limelight.
They certainly don’t like anything that smacks of one-upmanship or unearned inequality.
It’s hard to see how an entire nation could be “shy and retiring”, but there does sometimes seem to to me to be a disproportionately large number of Norwegians with those characteristics.
AJP,
You can call me Nijma, even if we aren’t related. Since your wife is Norwegian, that makes you a sort of brother-in-law. Hat is an even closer relative. Since his family came from the next valley south from my family, we are practically cousins.
If you had listened to Garrison Keillor all these years, you would know it is the Powermilk Biscuits that “gives shy persons the strength to do what needs to be done.” But yes, privilege that derives from an accident of birth is not appreciated in Woebegone either. Perhaps that’s why there are so many feminists.
Friends and relatives may use first names, but not colleagues at work. Not even after years and years.
Once again, you treat your personal experience as a template for humanity. I have never worked anywhere where coworkers did not call each other by their first names. It’s true I’ve never worked in Chicago, but I am quite sure there are many workplaces in Chicago where people use first names. You just haven’t worked in them.
Name one.
Then tell me if it is culturally/ethnically diverse.
If the people who speak the language in a given area cannot tell you how it is used, then who can? Outside of a scatterplot, what is considered valid?
Here’s another thing to think about. If you have been calling the security guard “Leroy” or the cleaning lady “Maria” all these years, what do they think about that, and are they free to say what they think?
I’m not saying I like the system (or dislike it, for that matter), or that I understand the rules perfectly (I tend to treat rules as being fluid), or that I don’t sometimes break the rules when I’m talking to someone who looks and talks like me, but it does seem like a way to avoid misunderstandings.
I agree it’s a bit racist to call the security guard “Leroy”.
But now that you mention it, everyone calls the (Hispanic)(male) computer tech by first name (and we eat his food, too, very respectfully)–also the (Hispanic)(female) office personel. The AA computer tech we had before was first name also. Security has real badges; they are just off-duty. If I knew their names I would probably just call them “sir” anyhow, in case they stop me some day, or in case I ever have a problem with a knife-wielding student. Any coworker with a job title in my union as well as administration is definitely “Mr.” and “Ms.”
Are you absolutely sure *everyone* in Norway uses first names at work? Calling someone by last name only is done here too (if I was Nijma Camelsnose, I would be just “Camelsnose”), but it’s more common for men.
I have never known an architects’ office in the United States or Norway where everyone wasn’t on first-name terms with each other. The biggest offices had fifty-plus employees, both in NY and Norway. All architects, engineers, other consultants, clients (some quite famous clients), cleaners, fedex guys, messengers, office managers, contractors… I can’t think of any other kinds of workers, everyone has always been on first name terms with each other.
The only exception is some clients, and the engineers and contractors who worked with us in Germany, where it wasn’t the custom to use anything but Herr & Frau (and anyway they had their Sie business going on). Actually it was totally sick in Germany, now i come to think of it, because my partner was a Graf von B. and so this created a huge THING, where half the people were calling him Graf and the rest definitely were not. Stupid, stupid, like the Sie – du.
It was a different era, because he died in 1959, but people who were connected with Frank Lloyd Wright’s office always refer to him as “Mr Wright”, for some reason. However, he was surrounded by a sort of weird group of fawning acolytes; almost a cult.
Taliesin has a weird reputation, for sure, as a place where Wright held court, and people who went there on pilgrimage were not quite comfortable.
What’s the first-name pattern, then, occupation? Maybe architects and all their minions have to work together closely, and have the opportunity to get to know each other. I only meet other teachers when I substitute for them or when I’m stealing chalk. Oh, and the students don’t ever use my first name either, or tutear, so I stick to usted and not tu, since they don’t feel free to reciprocate. As a side note, our pastor used to be on first name basis with everyone, but when the new (Asian) (male) bishop was appointed, suddenly it became “Reverend” (which I prefer anyhow). Maybe the last name thing is something relatively recent. Or maybe it comes from upwards in a hierarchy.
Soldiers, police and so on may become the last to retain titles. As for teachers, all of them at my daughter’s school are known by their first names, as were the language teachers at the college where I learnt Norwegian when I first came here — and it’s not just Norway, I think that’s also the case at my old and frumpy school in England.
Soldiers, police and so on may become the last to retain titles. As for teachers, all of them at my daughter’s school are known by their first names, as were the language teachers at the college where I learnt Norwegian when I first came here — and it’s not just Norway, I think that’s also the case at my old and frumpy school in England.
We would never in a hundred years have dreamed of using our teachers’ first names, even if we had known what they were. It was always “Mrs. Jones” and “Miss Smith”. I still can’t bring myself to use the first names of professors. One I hung out with through my undergraduate years at the Urban Anthropological Society–a little joke, his house was near campus and known for its frequent parties with steak BBQs and Mexican crock of glogg on a bed of coals in the middle of the living room. In spite of years of driving him everywhere from his students’ field trips to his daughter’s wedding to impromptu brunches in Indiana, and renting one of his rooms for several months when I returned from the middle east–I was never able to use his first name–I called him “professor”.
The original 1901 newspaper article suggests that Ms. is an abbreviation. Could the writer have intended Ms. to be an abbreviation of “Mis” since the letters appear in Miss and Mistress (and even Missus)?
As to the pronunciation, the “miz” pronunciation would serve to distinguish Ms. aurally from Miss.
Just an idea.
Both of my children attend schools in which the custom, or perhaps even the school policy, is to first-name everybody, teachers included. On the other hand, each of them has in the recent past attended a school in which teachers were known as Mr This or Ms That, etc. (But my wife and I have always been on a first-name basis with our childrens’ teachers. It would feel funny to me to address them by title-surname. I wonder whether children are sometimes unsure of the Miss/Mrs/Ms thing with teachers — do kids ever resort to the option of mumbling ambiguously? I know I sometimes do.)
When I was in school (35+ years ago) it was always Mr/Mrs/Miss for the teachers. Except for one high school teacher who went by Dr — . (There were a couple of other known cases of teachers with doctorates (I wonder how we knew that!) but they went by Mr —)
My own (university) students struggle visibly in some cases with what to call me. I am afraid that I emit faint signals that the undergrads are welcome to first-name me, but that I am not that comfortable with it if they do so. On the other hand, I am uncomfortable when (post-)graduate students do _not_ first-name me. And in one case it was not until many months after he was awarded his PhD that I was able to get him to address me by first name in an email.
This same diffident former student of mine, while still a student, met my family one day. My wife remembers him for the following joke that he told:
Q: What’s the difference between an introverted mathematician and an extroverted mathematician?
A: The introvert looks at his shoes while he is talking with you; the extrovert looks at _your_ shoes.
tgg, you would appreciate a video called “How to talk Minnesotan” that describes the correct body language for talking to someone in Woebegone. You stand with your shoes at a 90 degree angle to the other person and gaze at the horizon. (Unlike Chicago, Minnesota always has a horizon.) Quite a few things in the video hit home, like how to wave goodbye to departing guests and how to refuse food three times before accepting it.
I’ll have to look for that video.
I didn’t mention that the shy grad student in question was from Minnesota!
They say that, according to ethnic group, some people leave without saying good-bye while others say goodbye without leaving.
Klingons, of course, have no word for either ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’. They just start talking at the beginning of an interaction and stop talking at the end. (There is a putative Klingon word for ‘hello’, but it is really used by a superior to an inferior who has approached and is looking for a chance to begin talking, and literally means ‘What do you want?’.
I see that I wrote an ambiguous sentence:
“I am afraid that I emit faint signals that the undergrads are welcome to first-name me, but that I am not that comfortable with it if they do so.”
I intended [but that …] to be parallel to [I emit …], not parallel to [the undergrads are …].
On the other hand, it’s probably true either way.
Fruedian slip no doubt, tgg, but the explanation is murkier than the original statement.
Why does Kron assume first-naming is always positive (if I’m reading between the lines right)? Don’t good fences make good neighbors?
For the same reason I dislike the practice of using du/Sie or tu/vous, which I think of as a system of outdated social hierarchies masquerading as something to do with language. The ‘good fences’ line is used in that argument too, as is the one about it being a system that protects weaker/poorer members of society as much or more than others. You can make both arguments in favour of British-type titles, but I doubt you would. I’d be very depressed to work in an environment where people used last names, though I expect it’s partly just a question of what you’re used to.
No graduate students at Columbia, when I was there in the seventies, used anything except first names with the faculty. I was never an undergraduate in the US.
Columbia is well known as a hotbed of rabblerousers.
It’s only a hierarchy if one group can use du and the other group can’t. If everyone has to use sie, then everyone is even. If one group is using du and thinks everything is hunky dory and the other group is saying um,uh, and avoiding names altogether, then something less straightforward is going on. I do remember working in a hospital where first names were used (except for the doctors, who were more or less referred to generically as “doctor” without a first or last name) and I have never seen such a caste-ridden hell hole in all my life.
But surely the meaning of the words will change over the years so when they were first used has no relevance to what they mean now or in the past. Or are you saying that Ms. in 1901 is a different word (or abbrev.) than Ms. in 1960’s ?
I do remember working in a hospital where first names were used …and I have never seen such a caste-ridden hell hole
Maybe; but you’re not saying that using first names caused the unpleasantness. You’re just saying that leaving the doctors out caused resentment, which isn’t surprising.
@ Jason Lee
“But surely the meaning of the words will change over the years so when they were first used has no relevance to what they mean now or in the past. Or are you saying that Ms. in 1901 is a different word (or abbrev.) than Ms. in 1960’s?”
If this question was in reference to what I had written, I’m only referring to the 1901 writer, who said that Ms. was an abbreviation, but never clearly said what Ms. was the short form of.
I think the people who created Ms. in the 1960s regarded it as a form parallel to Mrs. and Mr., and didn’t give any thought to Ms. as an abbreviation.
AJP: leaving the doctors out caused resentment
No, no, no, docs are immaterial to hospital culture. They blow onto a ward with all their minions, make all the rounds in an hour or so, and blow out, while people try to catch them to write scripts for their patients or themselves. They work something like 80 hours a week and they don’t hang around to chat, at least not with the plebes. They are also at the top of the hospital food chain, admin or no admin, and I’ve seen some ugliness from that too, although they are probably the least petty people in the whole scheme.
you’re not saying that using first names caused the unpleasantness
Using first names did not create a utopia.
I must admit I rather like to see the odd doctor around when I’m in hospital
My German teacher in the ’90s told me rather firmly that every woman is entitled to be called Frau. (But in German, of course. Didn’t think I’d risk it.)
I always pronounce it “məz” with a schwa like in “the”. When I was a little kid in the ’70s I found it endlessly confusing and used to pronounce it “em ess”. At the time it was the name of a syndicated cartoon in the newspapers.
I have heard it pronounced “miz” too but I still prefer “məz”.
Now I have a self-assessment form to fill out as part of observation and eval. Here is the question:
.
So what do I write? I don’t know of any policy or convention about using first names/last names with students. The students refuse to use my name–according to the workplace conventions, I would be something like “Ms. Camelsnose”. They call me “teacher” which is a step towards informality but still maintains a distance. In a school system where teachers have been attacked with knives, I don’t mind some distance. But I also don’t know about referring to my students as Ms. or Mr. so and so. The students say a teacher can tutear the students but not the other way around. High school age, definitely not, but adult education is more of a gray area.
I suppose I should just quit fussing about it and check the “correct” answers.
At any of my workplaces (including my all-too-soon-to-be-former workplace!), first names are the rule throughout, and are replaced by firstname + lastname only to resolve ambiguity; sometimes the last name is reduced to an initial. (We have a Matt J and a Matt V; a Marc B and a Mark S; a John C, a John D, and a John G; but not a Luke in the bunch.)
On the other hand, I have noticed that most people know the last names of their male co-workers, and rarely know the last names of their female co-workers, perhaps because there are usually so few of them. At one place where I’ve just interviewed (waiting to hear back with bait on my breath), I asked my perhaps-soon-to-be boss, a woman, what the gender ratio in the company was. It was 1 woman to every 3 men, which is very high for the industry, though we agreed that calling that figure “high” was a disgrace.