Antedating of "Ms."

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 9:41 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> The OED's first use for the form of address "Ms." is from a Dec. 4, 1901 Iowa
> newspaper. The Iowa article is referring to prior usage in the Springfield
> (Mass.) Republican.  I have not  yet traced the original Springfield article,
> but I have found an earlier other newspaper  reprinting the Springfield
> article.  In the Newspaperarchive database, the Salt Lake Tribune,  Nov. 17,
> 1901, p. 21, reprints the Springfield article, including the use of the term
> "Ms."

Good find, Fred. When I first discovered the _Humeston (Iowa) New Era_ cite, I
assumed that its reference to the _Springfield Republican_ meant Springfield,
Mass. Dennis Baron and I both searched through microfilm for the Massachusetts
paper from late 1901 and couldn't find anything. But Stephen Goranson pointed
out that it's very likely the Iowa paper was referring to the Springfield
*Missouri* Republican. I tried getting microfilm for that paper via
interlibrary loan from a Missouri library, with no success. If someone can get
their hands on the microfilm, we now know to look for an article before Nov.
17.

More on "Ms." here (with comment from Stephen G.):
http://blog.oup.com/2007/10/antedating/

--Ben Zimmer

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