Memories of school uniform brought back something else I had not thought about for years: at my (co-ed) grammar school we were required to address all women teachers as Madam. It seemed a bit strange, even in the 1950s, but then I can not improve on the OED for an explanation:
"A form of respectful or polite address (substituted for the name) originally used by servants in speaking to their mistress, and by people generally in speaking to a woman of high rank; subsequently used with progressively extended application, and now, though no longer as frequently as in previous centuries, employed in addressing a woman of whatever rank or position"
It was a lot better than calling all teachers Miss, (though they almost all were, up to 1952, when it no longer became compulsory to retire on marriage, as my very first infant’s teacher had to – to floods of tears from all her charges).
It is also, of course, the female equivalent of Sir – the form of address we had to use for all male teachers (with considerable irony, in the case of our young geography master).
Madam is yet another word for female which has acquired a layer of derogatory meanings, such as brothel keeper or ‘little madam.’ It strikes me as ironic (or something) that perhaps the only word which never acquired such disparaging overtones was the one we have rejected – Mrs. And that applies even in its slightly humorous form of (the) missus.
On a related point Baroness Deech was sorry that her Question about courtesy titles for the husbands of Life Peers was not treated with the kind of seriousness it deserves.
One problem would be just what the title should be. To call him lord, or baron would be difficult, not least because I suspect most people would then just leap to the conclusion that the honour was his to bestow on his Lady Wife, not the other way round. Baroness Deech suggests “the Honourable,” which seems pretty fair
