What Does ‘Ms.’ Abbreviate?
When we look carefully at the English language’s standard honorifics, a curious asymmetry presents itself. “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” and “Miss” all have reasonably straightforward etymological explanations based on the words they abbreviate. But what about “Ms.”? This honorific is something of an outlier, less common than its linguistic cousins and subject
to more debate in many style guides. The King’s English Society went so far as to criticize “Ms.” as a “linguistic misfit” and “an abbreviation that is not short for anything.” This criticism is, in one sense, entirely correct — and in another sense, a little unfair. Here’s the full...
