Is that Miss or Ms? Oldest "Ms." might not have feminist origins after all

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:35 PM -0500 6/23/09, Dennis Baron wrote:
>There's a new post on the Web of Language:
>
>Is that Miss or Ms?  Oldest "Ms." might not have feminist origins after all
>
>Word hunter Ben Zimmer reports the earliest sighting so far of "the
>elusive first Ms." The word, an alternative to the marriage-specific
>titles Miss and Mrs, turns out to be over 100 years old. . . .
>
>Zimmer didn't need carbon dating to determine that the article about
>Ms. appeared on Nov. 10, 1901, under the heading "Men, Women and
>Affairs" in the Springfield (Massachusetts) Sunday Republican (page
>4, below the fold), and it recommended Ms. as a term to be used when
>you don't know a woman's marital status.
>
>. . . find out more about this early "Ms." citation. Read the whole
>post on the Web of Language:
>http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
>____________________
Three factors promoting current usage you don't mention in your column:

(1) "Ms." used in (written) business communication, where the writer
simply doesn't know (much less care about) the marital status of the
recipient.
(2) "Ms." used when a married woman retains her earlier (whether
"maiden" or previous married) name.  So if Miss Smith marries Mr.
Jones, she can't be Mrs. Smith, and may feel uncomfortable continuing
as Miss Smith, so Ms. Smith is the best option.
(3) In cases of divorce:  if Miss Smith above does change her name
but then divorces (or is divorced by) Mr. Jones, she may wish to
switch from Mrs. Jones to either Ms. Jones or Ms. Smith.

LH

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