There are a pair of unexpended things about the titleMrs . First , the word it stands for , missus , looks strange written out that way of life in full . In fact , except in the jokey context of “ the missus , ” meaning the married woman , you almost never see it written out . “ Missus Claus ” attend far more ill-chosen than “ Mister Rogers . ” Second , the abbreviation has an ‘ r ’ in it , and the Good Book does n’t . Why is there an ‘ radius ’ inMrs . ?
in the beginning , Mrs. was an abbreviation formistress , the female similitude ofmaster . There were various spelling for both forms — it might bemaistresse / maistreormaystres / mayster — and fluctuation in orthoepy too . The wordmistresshad a more general meaning of a woman who is in thrill of something . A governess in bursting charge of children was a mistress , as was a fair sex head of a household . The abbreviated form was used most often as a championship for a married cleaning lady .
Eventually , the title form took on a contracted , ' r'-less orthoepy , and by the end of the 18thcentury “ missis ” was the most satisfactory fashion to say it . ( A 1791 pronouncing dictionary said that to pronounce it " mistress " would “ appear quaint and academic . ” ) The full wordmistresshad by then amount to stand for a paramour , someone who was explicitly not aMrs .
The orthoepy ofMr.also underwent a change , from " master " to " mister . " But there was already a written wordmister , mean an job , craft , or skill ( link tométier ) so that whenMr . was write out that way it did n’t look awkward . Missus , however , was first pen out as a rough approximation of modest class accent , the way servants in Dickens talked of their mistresses , for example . Even though everyone was pronouncingMrs . as " missus , " they avoided spell it that way because it was just too casual . It would be like writingMs . asMiz . Sometimes a deed is not an abbreviation for a word , but a parole all of its own .
