Chapter Miss, Mistress, Mrs to Moat of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Miss, Mistress, Mrs to Moat

Miss, Mistress, Mrs (masteress, lady-master). Miss used to be written Mis, and is the first syllable of Mistress; Mrs. is the contraction of mistress, called Misess. Even in the reign of George II. unmarried ladies used to be styled Mrs.; as, Mrs. Lepel, Mrs. Bellenden, Mrs. Blount, all unmarried ladies. (See Pope's Letters.)
   Early in Charles II.'s reign, Evelyn tells us that “lewd women began to be styled Misse;” now Mistress is more frequently applied to them. (See Lad.)

Miss is as Good as a Mile (A). A failure is a failure be it ever so little, and is no more be it ever so great; a narrow escape is an escape, and a more easy one is no more. If I miss the train by one minute, I miss it as much as if it had run a mile from the station; and if I escape an evil by the skin of my teeth, I escape, and he who escapes it easily does no more.

Missing Link (The). According to Darwin, the higher animals are developed from the lower ones. The lowest form of animal life is protoplasm, which develops into amoebae (cell life), and thence, successively, into synamoeabæ, gastrula, hydra, medusa, worms, hematega, ascidians, fish, amphibians, birds and reptiles, monotremata, marsupials, placental mammals, lemuridæ, monkeys [missing link], man.

Mississippi Bubble The French “South-Sea Scheme,” and equally disastrous. It was projected by John Law, a Scotchman, and had for its object the payment of the National Debt of France, which amounted to 208 millions sterling, on being granted the exclusive trade of Louisiana, on the banks of the Mississippi. (1717-1720.) (See South Sea .)

Mistletoe Shakespeare calls it “the baleful mistletoe” (Titus Andronicus, ii. 3), in allusion to the Scandinavian story that it was with an arrow made of mistletoe that Balder was slain. (See Kissing Under The Mistletoe .)
   The word mistletoe is a corruption of mistel-ta, where mist is the German for “dung,” or rather the “droppings of a bird,” from the notion that the plant was so propagated, especially by the missel-thrush. Ta is for tan, Old Norse tein, meaning “a plant” or “shoot.”

Mistletoe Bough The tale referred to in this song, about Lord Lovel's daughter, is related by Rogers in his Italy, where the lady is called “Ginevra.” A similar narrative is given by Collet in his Relics of Literature, and another is among the Causes Célèbres.
   Marwell Old Hall, once the residence of the Seymour, and afterwards of the Dacre family, has a similar tradition attached to it, and (according to the Post Office Directory) “the very chest became the property of the Rev. J. Haygarth, a rector of Upham.”

Mistress Roper The Marines, or any one of them; so called by the regular sailors, because they handle the ropes like girls, not being used to them.

Mistress of the Night (The). The tuberose is so called because it emits its strongest fragrance after sunset. Sometimes, on a sultry evening, when the atmosphere is highly electrified, the fading flowers of the tuberose emit sparks of lucid flame.
   (In the language of flowers, the tuberose signifies “the pleasures of love.”)

Mistress of the World Ancient Rome was so called, because all the known world gave it allegiance.

Mita Sister of Aude, surnamed “the Little Knight of Pearls,” in love with Sir Miton de Rennes, Roland's friend. Charlemagne greeted her after a tournament with the Saracens at Fronsac, saying, “Rise, Countess of Rennes.” Mita and Sir Miton were the parents of Mitaine (q.v.). (Croquemitaine, xv.)

Mitaine Godchild of Charlemagne; her parents were Mita and Miton, Count and Countess of Rennes. She went in search of Fear fortress, and found that it only existed in the minds of the fearful, vanishing into thin air as it was approached by a bold heart and clear conscience. Charlemagne made her for this achievement Roland's squire, and she followed him on her horse Vaillant to Spain, and fell in the attack at Roncesvalles. (Croquemitaine, pt. iii.)