# missus
## English
### Alternative forms

* missis

### Etymology

Representing a typical pronunciation of Mrs, a corrupted form of Mistress.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmɪs.əz/, /ˈmɪs.ɪz/, /ˈmɪs.əs/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Homophones: misses, Misses
* Rhymes: -ɪsəz, -ɪsəs

### Noun

missus (plural missuses)
* (colloquial) Wife or girlfriend.
    Harry said he couldn't stop and chat because his missus wanted to go shopping.
    The missus has a list of chores for me to do this weekend.
** 2006, “Littlest Things”, in Alright, Still, performed by Lily Allen:Sometimes I find myself sitting back and reminiscing / Especially when I have to watch other people kissing / And I remember when you started calling me your missus / All the play fighting, all the flirtatious disses
** 2013, Jeff Jenkins, Watching The World, Andrews UK Limited, →ISBN:Imagine you have driven past a restaurant and thought to yourself, 'That would be a nice place to take the missus for an evening out,' and in no time at all you have found yourself flicking through the Yellow Pages in search of the phonenumber.
* (colloquial) Term of address for a woman.
    'Scuse me missus, but your petticoat's showing.
** 2013, C. S. Peters, On a Wing and a Prayer, page 161:Look ere Missus! Little Joey's me bruvva. E stays wiv me. We aint goin ter be split up.

#### Usage notes

The "wife or girlfriend" sense is most commonly used in phrases such as "the missus" (normally meaning the speaker's wife) or "my/his/Bill's missus". Traditionally, "missus" refers only to someone's wife. More recently, it has come to be used by some people also to refer to a girlfriend.

#### Synonyms

* Mrs. (US, Canada)
* Mrs (UK)

#### Coordinate terms

* miss
* mister
* mistress
* madam
* maiden
* maid
* master
* matron

#### Translations
## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈmis.sus/, [ˈmɪs̠ːʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈmis.sus/, [ˈmisːus]

### Etymology 1

mittō (“to send, to shoot, to let”) +‎ -tus.

#### Noun

missus m (genitive missūs); fourth declension
* a sending, dispatching
* a throwing, hurling, cast, shot
* (in the public games) a round
* (of a meal) a course

##### Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

### Etymology 2

Perfect passive participle of mittō (“send, dispatch”)

#### Participle

missus (feminine missa, neuter missum); first/second-declension participle
* sent, having been sent, caused to go, having been caused to go
** 4th century, St Jerome, Vulgate, Tobit 3:25
    et missus est angelus Domini sanctus Rafahel ut curaret ambos quorum uno tempore fuerat oratio in conspectu Domini recitataAnd the holy angel of the Lord, Raphael was sent to heal them both, whose prayers at one time were rehearsed in the sight of the Lord.
* let go, having been let go, released, having been released, discharged, having been discharged
* thrown, having been thrown, hurled, having been hurled, cast, having been cast, launched, having been launched
* sent out, having been sent out, emitted, having been emitted
* uttered, having been uttered
* dismissed, having been dismissed, disregarded, having been disregarded
* put to an end, having been put to an end

##### Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

##### Related terms

* missa
* missiō

##### Descendants

* Catalan: mes
* English: mess
* French: mis
* Old French: mets, mes
* Italian: messo
* Sicilian: misu

### References

* “missus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “missus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* "missus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* missus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. to speak without circumlocution: missis ambagibus dicere correspondence: litterae missae et allatae (ambiguous) a letter to Atticus: epistula ad Atticum data, scripta, missa or quae ad A. scripta est