Miss: Encyclopedia II - Miss - Usage

Miss - Usage

Miss can be used in direct address to a woman, for example, May I help you, miss? Some women consider this disrespectful and prefer ma'am. In the United Kingdom, Miss is often used to address female teachers without using their name, regardless of marital status.

Miss was formerly the default title for a businesswoman, but it has largely been replaced by Ms. in this context. It was (and to some extent remains) also a default title for celebrities, such as actresses. (The poet Dorothy Parker was often referred to as Miss Parker, even though Parker was the name of her first husband and she herself preferred Mrs. Parker.) Another notable use of Miss is as the title of a beauty queen, such as Miss America, Miss World, or Miss Congeniality.

Other languages, such as French, Spanish and Portuguese, have borrowed the English Miss to refer to the winner of a beauty pageant.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Usage", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki