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Sign for wedding "Mr & Mrs" (mister and missis) with flowers in the grass
© Natashilo/Shutterstock.com

If we pronounce the title Mrs. as “missus,” why is there an r in it? Despite its pronunciation, the abbreviation Mrs. is derived from the title mistress, which accounts for that confusing extra letter. Mistress is the counterpart of master, which—you guessed it—is abbreviated to Mr. (Of course, English speakers now pronounce the title Mr. as “mister.”)

(Read H.L. Mencken's 1926 Britannica essay on American English.)

While mistress may have distasteful connotations today, in the mid-18th century the title referred to a woman of economic or social capital. Mrs. was an honorific: a woman referred to as Mrs. generally had servants or was part of an upper social echelon. Most notably, the title Mrs. did not signify that a woman was married, just like Mr. today. In fact, Samuel Johnson’s dictionary of 1755 offers six definitions for the word mistress, which range from the respectful (“a woman who governs” or “a woman skilled in anything”) to the ironic (“a term of contemptuous address” or “a whore or concubine”), but no definition mentions marital status.

The use of Mrs. to refer to a married woman is linked to the history of another title: Miss. Miss became a popular title in the late 18th century and specifically referred to an unmarried woman (often a schoolteacher) of a high social status. (Originally, Miss was actually a title for young girls, while Master was the title for boys.) This, according to scholar Amy Erickson, caused a shift in the use of Mrs. to signify a married woman in the late 18th century and still informs our use of the title Mrs. today.

How the pronunciation of mistress turned to “missus” is somewhat unclear. Erickson cites John Walker’s A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language from 1828: “The same haste and necessity of dispatch, which has corrupted Master into Mister, has, when a title of civility only, contracted Mistress into Missis.” The change in pronunciation was essentially a colloquial and utilitarian shortening, and by the tail end of the 18th century, this pronunciation was the preferred one.

Science & Tech
VAN, TURKEY - OCTOBER 25: A building and car ruined during the earthquake of Van-Ercis on October 25, 2011 in Van, Turkey. It is 604 killed and 4152 injured in Van-Ercis Earthquake.
© Prometheus72/Shutterstock.com

Earth is an active place full of storms, fast-moving river and ocean currents, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Continents are slowly but constantly moving, and the stresses that build up in the rocks that stem from pushing, pulling, and twisting forces eventually result in the sudden violent fracturing of the rocks. Earthquakes—that is, sudden episodes of shaking ground—are caused by seismic waves (which result from the energy released by the breaking and slippage of one set of rocks against another). Aftershock is the term used to describe a shaking event that follows an earthquake. But what exactly is an aftershock, and what is it about an aftershock that makes it different from an earthquake?

Aftershocks are themselves earthquakes, but they are more accurately described as the lower-magnitude (or lower-intensity) tremors that follow the principal earthquake or main shock (that is, the largest earthquake in a sequence of earthquakes). When an earthquake occurs some of the energy released from the sudden fracturing of rock is transferred to the rocks nearby, which adds to the pushing, pulling, and twisting stresses already placed on them. When these stresses are too much for the rocks to bear, they break as well, releasing a new round of pent-up energy and creating new faults in the rock. In this way, earthquakes beget aftershocks, and aftershocks beget smaller-and-smaller aftershocks. Aftershocks tend to be the most severe and happen more frequently in the hours and days that follow an earthquake. However, their magnitude and frequency decrease over time. Although the shaking intensity associated with most aftershocks is relatively small compared with that of the principal earthquake, it can be large enough to hamper rescue efforts by further destabilizing buildings and other structures. In addition, aftershocks can be stressful for local residents coping with the damage and loss of life wrought by the principal quake.