Do You Know Why There’s an ‘R’ in Mrs.?

Have you ever thought about this before? The reason why is pretty interesting!

I came across this information on Cosmo and the minute I started thinking about the question, "Do you know why there's an 'R' in Mrs.," I thought well maybe it's a possessive thing. Like Mr. and Mr's. While I thought my idea was pretty good, it's not the real reason.

The "R" is in Mrs. because "misses" used to be "mistress."

But you're thinking, Michelle, aren't mistresses usually not married to the Mr... like a side piece? Yeah, these days we definitely think of a mistress as part of an affair, not a marriage.

However, way back when, in the 18th century, a man was considered a master, and his wife was the mistress.

So what happened?

People got lazy in their speech and started saying "misses" instead of "mistress," but the abbreviation Mrs. stuck.

The abbreviation "Ms." didn't come until way later, in the feminist era. I could do without the "Ms." and "ma'am," in case you're wondering, I'll stick to Miss. But the story behind Mrs. is pretty good!