Origin: before 900; Middle English missen,Old English missan; cognate with Old Frisian missa,Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Old High German missen,Old Norse missa to fail to hit or reach
"the term of honour to a young girl" [Johnson], shortened form of mistress. Earliest use (1645) is for "prostitute, concubine;" sense of "title for a young unmarried woman, girl" first recorded 1666. In the 1811 reprint of the slang dictionary, Miss Laycock is given as