Will it be 'au revoir' to 'mademoiselle'?

Washington Times ^ | May 6, 2006 | Kerstin Gehmlich (Reuters)

[maica]

When I went to school - in the dark ages - we learned that Madamoiselle was dropped at the ripe old age of 25 - when one was considered to be an old maid!

Perhaps because France also had a lot of laws restricting a femme's" right to own property - everything belonged to the mari [husband] after the marriage, legally a woman has to designate her marital status on a deed. Such a controlling country!

[mewzilla]

Oh, Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
Parley-vous
Oh, Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
Parley-vous
Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
She hasn't been kissed for forty years!
Hinky-dinky, parlez-vous?

[Jim Noble]

The English equivalent in olden times was "damsel"

"Damsel" was a corrupted slang form of "mademoiselle", from the Frnch language used by the upper classes and at court.

I don't know that there was ever an English usage, other than maiden.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

Yes, "damsel" is cognate with "demoiselle."

"Maiden" is cognate with the modern German word "Maedchen", meaning girl. Both words are ultimately derived from the same ancient Germanic term.

English, which started as a Germanic language, now includes a large number of words with a French (Latin) origin following the Norman Conquest.

This is one reason why English has a so much richer vocabulary than other languages - often one can choose from different words meaning similar things, sometimes with slightly different shades of meaning, with one word derived from the old Germanic roots of the language and another word with Latin roots via the Normans, or from some other source entirely.

The older Germanic words in English tend to be simpler than the newer Latin/French words. For example, in this famous passage spoken by Churchill, there is only one word derived from the Latin/French:

"We shall fight on the beaches; we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

What is that one word? The word "surrender!"

[jonrick46]

Your point is well taken. I just use the first and last name and skip the title. When writing a company, instead of writing "Dear Sirs:" I write, "My friends at (company name)."