missis

   , missus

   These spellings represent the spoken form of ‘Mrs’, as it is always written when prefixed to the last name of a married woman. ‘Missis’ could be described as an incorrect form of ‘madam’, used by uneducated, or unsophisticated speakers, normally to address a woman who looks old enough to be married but is unknown to the speaker. Examples of such usage occur in, e.g., The Country Girls, by Edna O’Brien, Doctor in the House, by Richard Gordon, The Fox in the Attic, by Richard Hughes, and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, by Alan Sillitoe. In the latter novel alone there are eight examples of ‘missis’ used in a fairly neutral way to a strange woman. A special use occurs in A Kind of Loving, by Stan Barstow. A young couple are departing on their honeymoon, having been married a few hours earlier: ‘Well, missis,’ says the young husband to his bride, once they are alone. ‘Aye, mister,’ she replies. This reflects working-class usage of ‘the missis’, to mean one’s wife. Novelists are not always consistent with the spelling of ‘missis/missus’. Both forms are likely to occur in the same book; in ShipMaster, by Gwyn Griffin, they are to be found on the same page.