4 ms·

Specifically, it's an abbreviation of the French messieurs, which is just multiple misters. Maybe it's more formal now, but it was ordinary and frequently used

Specifically, it's an abbreviation of the French messieurs, which is just multiple misters. Maybe it's more formal now, but it was ordinary and frequently used in the past in both French and English writing. (Obviously, still quite commonly used in, um, French today.) E.g., English https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=messrs&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cmessrs%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BMessrs%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BMESSRS%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bmessrs%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=messrs&case_in... French https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=messrs&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=19&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cmessrs%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BMessrs%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bmessrs%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BMESSRS%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=messrs&case_in...

frutiger 8y ago
In particular, compare: “mon sieur” vs. “mes sieurs”.
- checkyoursudo 8y ago
  Indeed
baud147258 8y ago
As a French, it feels weird to learn something about my language on an English site :|. I don't remember seeing it written in French. Or I saw it, understood the meaning and forgot.
- GuiA 8y ago
  You’ve probably heard it without noticing - eg “Mesdames et messieurs” (ladies and gentlemen) is still in common use.
- lloeki 8y ago
  That's because it's largely unused nowadays, the current abbreviation being MM. (which doubles the M. – not Mr! – abbreviation for monsieur).
Milner08 8y ago
English words of French origin are normally considered formal. Back when the French invaded England the rich spoke French, while the poor spoke Anglo Saxon. The words mutated and changed but words of French origin are now formal because of this.