mistress

[Sarah]

Jesse can elaborate on this, but he did write an article on the term: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2009/12/tiger_woods_does_not_have_11_mistresses.html

S.




On 2012-04-11, at 12:31 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: mistress
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 4/11/2012 1:25 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>> ....
>
>> So my question is 1) is it true that the term "mistress" applies only
>> to a non-marital partner of a /married/ man?
> --
>
> I don't believe so. I suppose one can discuss at length whether the
> right word in a given case/society is "[de jure or de facto] wife",
> "mistress", "second wife", "girlfriend", or whatever, but I think IME
> wherever this word "mistress" is natural it just means "a man's regular
> long-term female sex partner who is not the man's wife". I think a man
> can have wife/wives, or mistress(es), or both (depending on local laws,
> customs, etc.), or neither.
>
> I suppose in many contexts if a man has an acknowledged mistress but no
> formal/legal wife, it might be natural to consider that mistress really
> a sort of wife (e.g., "common-law wife" or so) (and therefore not called
> a "mistress"). But I think -- for example -- hardly anyone would say
> that a man's mistress stops being his mistress automatically on the loss
> of his wife (by her death or by divorce).
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
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