MS

Word History: In a letter dated August 27, 1863, Abraham Lincoln wrote, "the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea," referring to General Grant's capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The sentence has all the simplicity and nobility of Lincoln's style, but Mississippi doesn't mean "Father of Waters." This colorful but false phrase first appears in print in 1812, is repeated by James Fenimore Cooper in his novel The Prairie (1827), and thereafter was in common circulation. Our name for the river has a different source. In 1666 French explorers somewhere in the western Great Lakes region recorded Messipi as their rendering of the Ojibwa name for the river they had come upon, misi-sipi, "big river." The French took the name with them as they went down Big River to its delta, and it superseded all the other names for Big River used by local Indian tribes and by earlier Spanish explorers. In 1798 Congress applied the Ojibwa name of the river to the territory of Mississippi, newly organized from lands inhabited by the Natchez, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. Still, "Father of Waters" is a happy error: "The Big River again goes unvexed to the sea" just doesn't have the right Lincolnian ring.

1. or ms. manuscript
2. millisecond

1. Latin Magister Scientiae (Master of Science)
2. Mississippi
3. multiple sclerosis

1. Used as a courtesy title before the surname or full name of a woman or girl: Ms. Doe; Ms. Jane Doe.
2. Used in informal titles for a woman to indicate the epitomizing of an attribute or activity: Ms. Fashionable; Ms. Volleyball.

Usage Note: Many of us think of Ms. or Ms as a fairly recent invention of the women's movement, but in fact the term was first suggested as a convenience to writers of business letters by such publications as the Bulletin of the American Business Writing Association (1951) and The Simplified Letter, issued by the National Office Management Association (1952). Ms. is now widely used in both professional and social contexts. As a courtesy title Ms. serves exactly the same function that Mr. does for men, and like Mr. it may be used with a last name alone or with a full name. Furthermore, Ms. is correct regardless of a woman's marital status, thus relegating that information to the realm of private life, where many feel it belongs anyway. Some women prefer Miss or Mrs., however, and courtesy requires that their wishes be respected.

1. Latin Magister Scientiae (Master of Science)
2. mail stop
3. mass spectrometer
4. mass spectrometry
5. Mauritius (international vehicle ID)
6. Microsoft
7. microwave scanner
8. Mississippi
9. mitral stenosis
10. multiple sclerosis