Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-07-13
MR., MRS. AND MISS.
Origin of the TitIes-A Demand in
England for a New One.

En9Iano TOR new One.
1t is not to be supposed that the de-
mand for a new title, to distinguish
bachelors from married men, Will ever
be satisfied The British Empire at
large is invited to suggest one, but we
seem to have lost the faculty of devils
ing new words. writes Frederick Boyle
in The Pail Mall Gazette" 1t would
be convenient. A good many young
| men who have taken on the precious
burden of a wife, not only throw it Off
but ignore it when they find chance;
this wicked levity would be dangerous
| if they had also to resume a designa-
| ton to which they hal no longer any
right. But there is little profit in dis
cussing reforms, however excellent.
which will never be carried out. Lord"
| (Haford) and Lady" Uhaefdigc) suf-
| feed cur ancestors for an indefinite
| length of time; if they rightly mean
"loaf-OWner' and ''lCaf-giver'' they
might be applied to all who had SER
| wants and dependents, evild or cevil, as
| the old phrase went. At any rate. no
others are recorded.
We can Scarceiy grasp the condition
of barbarism, where titles other than
those pertaining to Office are unknown
| 1t ALWAYS puzzles an intelligent school
| hoy to read one of the little speeches in
Greek or Latin history, where a rough
| fellow addresses some great parsonage
| by his bare name, as. it might be
'ThomGs' or Jones'" with no inten-
| ton of disrespect as a matter of course.
But if lord and lady" were restrict
| ed to person of rank. as is generally
supposed, it was the same with
our own people, so far as appears.
| Many vocabularies survive from
the tenth century downward, but
| it is not until the thirteenth that we
find ''mayster." the old French "mais-
tire" without change of pronounciatio
MA gistre' does not appear in the
early lists. though used in contem-
porary dialogues, where it means
schoolmaster. 1t is thought vulgar
| now to call a teacher a learner bu,
Archbishop Aelfric knew no other word
for schoolmaster Uareow).
Woman had to do without a title a
good deal longer, apparently. Blu,
those good old words 'gaifer" and
| GARNER call for more notice than is
granted them generally. They are ig-
| nored in the vocabularies. so far as we
have observed; but that proves nothing
| at ail-only minute fraction of Eng
lish words figure there. "Gaffer''
sounds very old and racy. The elderly
| can recollect it in familiar use through
the remoter districts of the Midlands.
The gaifer" was the farmer. but any
| mar of standing could be described as
Carter SO-andSo. 1t may be suspected
that this usage was antique: that it
should have escaped record of notice is
not extraordinary. "Gammer' we do
not personally recollect. But "goody
was still current. On the analogy OF
f-giNing it does not seem incredible
that this also should have been a seri-
Gus title once.
All WHO CHANGED to think upon the
subject must have been puzzled by the
number of French terms for kinship in
fInglish, as nephew, niece, cousin, I'M
Gle, grand. Those who still fancy that
the use Of French words for cooked
meats, while the name of the animal
remains English, should be Interpreted
10 mean that our unfortunate ances-
tors never tasted the cattle or pigs they
raised, must conclude, on the same rea-
sonlng, that they had no uncles, nieces..
aunts, or even grandfathers. In fact.
II the assurance be necessary, they had
as many of these relatives before tn.
Conquest as after, and names for them
az their own. 1t was the lawyers and
proct"rs of the ecclesiastical courts, n,
doubt, who gradually introduced tn,
foreign terms; but "eem'' in the sense
OF kin was not lost in Staffordshir,
sixty years ago. Properly, it signifies
an uncle, like the Cape Dutch "oom"
The. origin of Miss is so curious
that one must be circumsoect in deal
ing with it. The obvious derivation is
from mistress, but it is by no means
so sir:ple as it looks. A date for the
Introduction can be assigned With,
very few years which itself is remark
able. John Evelyn gives a number nj
references-the abbreViation was new
ana shocking to him. In 1862 he goes to
see the fair and famous comedian
'toXoiana,' and there hears talk of mis-
SEES as at that time they began to cali
tfese women. There is redundant ev-
idnce to the same effect Never did
word undergo a stranger TRANSFORMED
ton! The reason is that it supplied a
1elt want growing more and more
urgent continually. and the public
seized upon it, regardless of it's assoc
iatirns-brushed them aside and for
got them. In less than fifty years we
lind Miss" thoroughly established.
Pope's correspondents would have been
mortified. no doubt. to hear how it
arose. But, ladies of high rank could
not forget so easily. All through LADY
Mary Wortley's correspondence in the
eighteenth century the title never oc-
ours. Lady Marys daughter, born in
11lS, left it on record that people called
her Mistress while in the nursery:
but the Renaissance proves that be-
fore her death that form of address to
girl had become obsolete and even
ridiculous. Miss had definitely tri-
umphed.