Early "mis[s]"(1652) as title?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/30/2009 11:19 AM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>Were abbreviations consistently marked with periods? If not, even the
>confirmed absence of a period wouldn't settle that part of the question.

I don't know (but when were manuscript writers ever
consistent?  Especially in the 17th and 18th centuries).  However,
one of the 1606 quotations for "miss n.2" does use a period; the
other is terminated by a question mark, so we can't tell.  (I think
these 1606 quotations are the earliest in the OED entry.)

Joel

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