The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-29
.S11ss" A WORD OF Low ORIGIN.
FILLED a LOng-F cit Want and Dis
placed "Mrs." to Designate Girls.
London Spectator.


London Spectator.
Miss is commonly assumed to be an
abbreviation Of mistress" and this may be
true; but 1t was not corruption nor
form unconsciCusly introduced. John Eve
lyn has left q record of the date and cir
CumStanceS. In 1862 he goes to see the fair
ana famous comedian called Roxalana, from
the part she performed" and learns%th
she has been taken for the Erie of Ok
ford's misse, as at that time they began to
call lewd women" In 1866 he speaks of the
"fowe and indecent women who became
misses and sometimes wives of the young
gallants." Again, Evelyn witnessed a
drunken entertainment in 1911, when the
King attended with "a misse as they call
those unhappy creatures"
Never did word undergo stranger rev.
olution. 1t would have been the deadliest
of insults to call young lady Miss at
that time. But here is very strong illus
tration of the rule that terms really wanted
will gain a place in the language, be the
objections what they may. Hitherto there
had been no distinguishing title for young
girls, saving those ranks of life where
''Mademoiselle''-m commonly "Demoi-
selle"-Was current. Elsewhere a married
woman and her daughter had mistress in
common.
We do not recall any illusions to the in
conveniences which must have followed, but
the eagerness with which Miss" was ac-
cepted, in spite of the gravest disadvan-
tages, is the best proof that it was felt. An
attempt has been made, apparently to nat
uralize madame as the title of a married
woman, thus freeing mistress for the use
of girls exclusively But it never succeeded
with the middle class, and it had become
old-fashioned in the time of the Stuarts;
nevertheless some of us can recollect old
villagers speaking of the great lady of the
neighborhood, in the days Of their youths
as Madame So-and-So.' But there was
little help there, and the embarrassments
must have grown continually social in
tercourse became more general.
1t is not eXtravagant to suppose that the
custom of designating a mans wife as his
lady was an effort to escape it. One must
turn half hundred of EVelyns diary 20
find the name of a married woman unless
she had title of nObility-always it is his
lady" But in the upper circle Miss" won
it's way slowly. We may venture to say
that it does not occur in Lady Mary Stuart
Wortley'S correspondence, nor does Ma
DAM" applied to an English woman Little
girls and their grandmotherS are 'Mrs"
alike. 1t is to be observed, however, that
Pope uses Miss" freely in the same era.
Lady Mary and others of her rank may
probably have learned of the shameful
origin of the word in youth and eschewed
it ON that account whilst Pope would never
hear the story unless by chance.
Steele, in the Guardian, addressed a girl Of
fifteen as Mrs, " and Lady Butte left it on
record that She born in 171S remembered
some old ladies who always called her
Mrs" in the nursery. Under such circum-
stances it is no wonder that Miss" tri-
umpbed over it's evil associations. A word
was never so badly wanted for the conven-
fence of life and the purposes of civilized
society.