Why Is There An 'R' in Mrs.?
BY Arika Okrent
There are a couple of odd things about the title Mrs. First, the word it stands for, missus, looks strange written out that way in full. In fact, except in the jokey context of "the missus," meaning the wife, you almost never see it written out. "Missus Claus" looks far more awkward than "Mister Rogers." Second, the abbreviation has an 'r' in it, and the word doesn't. Why is there an 'r' in Mrs.?
Originally, Mrs. was an abbreviation for mistress, the female counterpart of master. There were various spellings for both forms—it might be maistresse/maistre or maystres/mayster—and variation in pronunciation too. The word mistress had a more general meaning of a woman who is in charge of something. A governess in charge of children was a mistress, as was a woman head of a household. The abbreviated form was used most frequently as a title for a married woman.
Eventually, the title form took on a contracted, 'r'-less pronunciation, and by the end of the 18th century "missis" was the most acceptable way to say it. (A 1791 pronouncing dictionary said that to pronounce it "mistress" would "appear quaint and pedantic.") The full word mistress had by then come to stand for a paramour, someone who was explicitly not a Mrs.
The pronunciation of Mr. also underwent a change, from "master" to "mister." But there was already a written word mister, meaning an occupation, trade, or skill (related to métier) so that when Mr. was written out that way it didn't look awkward. Missus, however, was first written out as a rough approximation of lower class dialect, the way servants in Dickens talked of their mistresses, for example. Even though everyone was pronouncing Mrs. as "missus," they avoided writing it that way because it was just too casual. It would be like writing Ms. as Miz. Sometimes a title is not an abbreviation for a word, but a word all of its own.
Why Are There 10 Hot Dogs to a Pack But Only 8 Buns?
BY Jake Rossen
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Watching competitive eating champion Joey Chestnut cram dozens of hot dogs down his throat would make anyone crave a grilled log of processed meat this summer. But shopping for hot dogs can be a confusing experience. The dogs are typically sold in packs of 10, but the buns are sold in packs of eight. What's behind this strange dog and bun inequality?
According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council—yes, there is a National Hot Dog and Sausage Council—there's a good reason for the discrepancy. For starters, distributors of hot dogs are almost always different from manufacturers of baked goods like rolls. The hot dogs are sold in packs of 10 because producers of meat (or meat-like) products selected that quantity when hot dogs started to sell at retail grocery stores in the 1940s. Oscar Mayer, which led the charge into direct-to-consumer hot dog packaging, sold hot dogs by the pound in accordance with how meat is typically priced. Having 10 dogs that weighed 1.6 ounces each seemed like the ideal distribution of weight.
Bakeries, meanwhile, have standards of their own. Buns and sandwich rolls are usually sold eight to a pack because the baking trays for the elongated buns are typically sized to fit that number. Two sets of four buns come off the tray, which is the reason why buns are often still attached to one another when you open a bag.
These standards were created independently of one another: Bakeries weren't too preoccupied with hot dogs when they were settling on a four-roll tray standard, and hot dog manufacturers weren't thinking about how difficult it would be for bakeries to break from their conveyor system to offer 10 buns to a pack.
It can be frustrating if you buy just one or two packages of each, but if you're hosting a big enough party, the uneven number doesn't matter. You just need to buy five packages of buns and four packages of hot dogs to have 40 matching pairs. No complicated calculations required.
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When Are the Dog Days of Summer?
BY Kara Kovalchik
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The official "dog days" of summer begin on July 3 and end on August 11. So how did this time frame earn its canine nickname? It turns out the phrase has nothing to do with the poor pooches who are forever seeking shade in the July heat, and everything to do with the nighttime sky.
Sirius, the Dog Star, is the brightest star in the sky. The ancient Greeks noticed that in the summer months, Sirius rose and set with the Sun, and they theorized that it was the bright, glowing Dog Star that was adding extra heat to the Earth in July and August.
Roberto Mura, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
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