Antedating of "Ms."

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Quoting Randy Alexander:

> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 12:26 AM, Ann Burlingham wrote:
> >> The OED's first use for the form of address "Ms." is from a Dec. 4, 1901
> Iowa newspaper. Â The Iowa article is referring to prior usage in the
> Springfield (Mass.) Republican. Â I have not yet traced the original
> Springfield article, but I have found an earlier other newspaper reprinting
> the Springfield article. Â In the Newspaperarchive database, the Salt Lake
> Tribune, Nov. 17, 1901, p. 21, reprints the Springfield article, including
> the use of the term "Ms."
> >
> > I'm surprised by this, though maybe I'm missing a nuance here, but I
> > know I read Miss Manners, in her discussion of "Ms." referring to at
> > least a century's-older usage.
>
> http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/07/27/ms/index.html
>
> "They might be surprised to learn that modern feminists did not come
> up with Ms. in the first place. The title's earliest documented
> appearance was on the 1767 tombstone of a Massachusetts woman named
> Sarah Spooner. "
>
> A few other pages mention this (google: "sarah spooner" 1767 ms).
> Some suggest it to be an isolated case, with no connection (through
> continuity in use) with the 20th century.

See also Dennis Baron's _Grammar and Gender_ (p. 167):

"The title _Ms_ appears on the tombstone of Sarah Spooner, who died in 1767 in
Plymouth, Massachusetts, but it is certainly an abbreviation of _Miss_ or
_Mistress_, and not an example of colonial langurage reform or a slip of the
chisel, as some have suggested."


--Ben Zimmer

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