Re: punctuated abbreviations // was english spelling reform

Muke Tever scripsit:

> I think we need "Msr" or "Mtr" as a direct counterpart of the female "Mrs".
> Just for fairness sake.
Ambrose Bierce (author of _The Devil's Dictionary_, 1911), was way ahead of you:

# MISS, n.  The title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate
# that they are in the market.  Miss, Missis (Mrs.) and Mister (Mr.) are
# the three most distinctly disagreeable words in the language, in sound
# and sense.  Two are corruptions of Mistress, the other of Master.  In
# the general abolition of social titles in this our country they
# miraculously escaped to plague us.  If we must have them let us be
# consistent and give one to the unmarried man.  I venture to suggest
# Mush, abbreviated to Mh.

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan  www.reutershealth.com
"If I have seen farther than others, it is because I am surrounded by dwarves."
        --Murray Gell-Mann