Just recently I read about the etymology of the Japanese 奥さん Okusan = “your wife” Until Japan started modernizing in the 19th century, it was considered rude t

Just recently I read about the etymology of the Japanese 奥さん Okusan = “your wife” Until Japan started modernizing in the 19th century, it was considered rude to call people by their real names. If you asked your lord, “So how’s Sharon doing,” those may have been your last words. So everyone called each other by their position names or by their nicknames if they were close, and for women in noble families or samurai families, it was usually the place they lived. In ancient times, nobles had manors that looked like this. This is the entrance, the garden, the main building, and this building in the north of it was always the wife’s residence. So they often called her “Kita-no-kata,” the lady in the north. Now, nobles built their houses based on a fung-shuei-like belief that Japanese shamans made everyone believe, like how rich people communities are into weird stuff, so the wife’s residence was almost always in the north. But centuries later, in the age of samurai, priorities shifted. They were invading each other like there was nothing else to do, so they built their houses and castles with defence in mind first and foremost. So the wife’s room wasn’t necessarily in the north anymore. So they were like, “So, how is the… umm… lady in the depths of your house?” 奥方様はいかがお過ごしですかな？ 奥方様 means the lady in the depths, and it was shortened to 奥様, after the samurai age, and while 奥様 is still used now, we needed a slightly less formal version, so now if is often 奥さん. Deep-san! source: https://www.facebook.com/metroclassicjapanese/posts/the-etymology-of-the-japanese-%E5%A5%A5%E3%81%95%E3%82%93-okusan-your-wifeuntil-japan-started-modernizin/1083845280406889/ https://www.facebook.com/metroclassicjapanese/posts/the-etym...