Conference thebay::joyoflex

    Mrs is short for Mistress, which for many a year was the correct
    English title of any adult female.  It had no connotations of being
    married. 
    
    Some time after Mr. Swift wrote, a distinction between respectable
    women and sluts began to emerge, and for various social and economic
    reasons that distinction was made along employment lines. A married
    woman was Mrs; a working woman had no title.  This is why in much
    literature from the 1800's you see a respectable housekeeper making
    quite a point about being called "MRS. Parsons" instead of "Parsons,"
    as the parlormaid would have been addressed. She wanted to make sure
    she was understood to be respectable even though she had to work. 
    
    Slut, by the way, used to mean simply "a young woman."  "Hussy" is a
    shortened form of "housewife" and used to refer to a young person of
    either sex who kept house.  As hussy gained unfortunate sexual
    connotations, it was replaced by terms like "maid" and "parlormaid." 
    
    In the even more distant past, "wife" meant "a person who worked at a
    trade"; as in "housewife" -- one whose trade was the house -- and
    "fishwife" -- one who sold fish -- and "alewife" -- a tavernkeeper.
    There are Old and Middle English references to both men and women who
    hold all these titles. 
    
    --bonnie 

    Re .1:
>   "Hussy" is a shortened form of "housewife" and used to refer to a
>   young person of either sex who kept house.  
    
    Another shortened form of the word "housewife" is used in the British Army 
    (at least, it *was* used many years ago when I did my military service).
    
    I have no idea how it should be spelled, but it comes out sounding like 
    "hussif": it represents a small Army-issue linen holder for the soldier's 
    housewifely tools, namely his darning and sewing equipment.

    In Miller's "The Crucible" the term "Goody" (from Goodwife, I assume)
    is used to refer to "respectable" women. Is this a specifically
    American term, or was exported (more likely), or (least likely)
    a Millerism?
    
    Phillip

    "Goody" was used as a title in the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials,
    referring to housewives.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    "Goody" or "Goodwife" or "Good Wife," was, I believe, a term invented
    by the Puritans in England to distinguish their modest, respectable
    wives from the hussies (read: "housewives") who favored the so-called
    "Cavalier" party and whose behavior at court was not always so
    circumspect as the Puritan leaders desired.
    
    --bonnie

    Another strange (from our point of view) custom I've run across
    from reading turn-of-the-century novels is that a familiar form
    of a married woman's name would be "Mrs. <first name of husband>."
    So the wife of, say, Thomas Smith, would be referred to as "Mrs.
    Thomas".
    
    --- jerry

    Cute.  I hadn't run across that one before.  Sounds like a middle-class
    attempt to borrow titled-class usages, since a woman married to
    a titled gentleman is Lady <his_first_name>.  I wonder if that's
    the case, or if it's something else?
    
    There's also the Southern familiar form "Miss <own-first-name>",
    as in "Miss Scarlett" or "Miss Lillian", which I believe carries
    class connotations. 
    
    --bonnie

    I have heard it said that the only correct form of address of a
    married woman is (for example) Mrs John Smith, on the basis that
    the person you're referring to is the Mrs (Mistress) of John Smith.  
    This probably has something to do with the fact that she is assumed
    to have adopted all her husband's names, and not just his surname,
    when she has married him. Hence "Mr and Mrs John Smith", which is not
    too uncommon, though dying out.
            
    According to this rule, the only way that you can refer to a woman
    without forcing her husband's first name on her is to call her by
    first name and surname (no title), e.g. "Mary Smith".
                         
    Sexist maybe, but that's the way I've had the rule explained to
    me several times.
    
    John.
    

    re: .8 --
    
    That is correct, but it's very recent usage -- since around 1920.
    
    --bonnie

    re:.7,.8 It is a curiousity of the mid-20th century when housewivery
    was elevated to such a level.  It is also quite obsolete to call it
    "correct", since it is by no means the only way that anglophonic names
    work. A woman defined as a wife first and an individual never or rarely
    (which was certainly the case among some major portions of anglophonic
    society) could be called "Mrs. John Smith" but it is not the only
    "correct" way.
    
    My mother has a jolly time referring to some of the women in my
    family as "Mrs. so-and-so" when they most certainly do not use that
    form of address.  Sort of an insult against women who broke the
    "Father knows best" mold which was indoctrinated into them in the
    1946-1965 time frame.
    
    The Massachusetts marriage license form has blanks for "name to
    be used after marriage".  It's on both bride and groom's side, and
    there's a quotation from the law stating that the name to be used
    may be one's own name, either spouse's name, a hyphenated name,
    or any other name you like not limited to the above!  It's there
    for the town records.
    
    Sematically, I'd say that now "Mrs." means "wife or former wife of"
    while "Miss" and the neologistic spelling "Ms." mean "woman named".
    Neither implies marital status, though some persons infer from the
    former what is not necessarily there. 
            fred 

    re:.7
    
    "In British or in American turn-of-the-century novels?"
    
    Canadian, actually (by L. M. Montgomery).
    
    --- jerry

Re .2:
    
>    Another shortened form of the word "housewife" is used in the British Army 
>    (at least, it *was* used many years ago when I did my military service).
    
>    I have no idea how it should be spelled, but it comes out sounding like 
>    "hussif": it represents a small Army-issue linen holder for the soldier's 
>    housewifely tools, namely his darning and sewing equipment.

As far as I know, it is "housewife".  A quick check on the word in my copy of
"The Oxford Dictionary of Current English" produced:

	HOUSEWIFE n. woman managing a household; <phonetic alphabet stuff which
	I can't reproduce, but coming out as "huzif" or thereabouts> case for
	needles, thread, etc.

Looking up this entry gave me a surprise - I thought it was pronounced
"housewife"!

Chris.

used by soldiers, etc., but it's at least an 18th-century term. 
British naval personnel in the time of the American Revolution carried
housewives with them.  For a slightly later illustration, refer to hte
Hornblower stories.

"Huzzif" is a good approximation of the pronunciation as I've heard it.
 Consider that this is a Brit usage, and the Brits are the people who
say "Chumley" when they refer to a person named Cholmondeley.

-d

    'Tennn-hut!
    
    Q.  What happens to a girl when she gets married?
    
    
    Disss-missed!
    
    
    
    sorry

    re: .13 and .14
    
    The pronunciation reflects the orginal spelling, huswif, which
    means roughly "the  person who tends to the house."  _House_ is to
    be taken in the broader sense of personal comfort rather than the
    narrower sense of a building where you live.  The word _huswif_
    dates from at least 600-700, maybe earlier.  (And, incidentally, a
    huswif was not necessarily a woman and not necessarily married to
    any of the other people in the hus.)
    
    As the spelling of the separate words _house_ and _wife_ changed,
    the spelling of the compound word _housewife_ also changed, but
    apparently the pronunciation didn't, at least in this sense. 
    
    --bonnie