Is There Such A Thing As A "Postmistress"?

A minor topic, yet I find it interesting.

It would seem that some female "postmasters" are offended by the use of the term "postmistress" as shown in this letter to the editor linked below:

http://www.vnews.com/home/2905809-9...-office-post




Yet the title "postmistress" is used all the time in news articles both in the US and abroad, and it is recognized as a legitimate term in dictionaries, etc.:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dict...postmistress
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/postmistress

Just wondering in this "politically correct" society in which we live if the term is still used or if "postmaster" is, in fact, the preferred term regardless of gender. Or was the writer of the letter to the editor posted above just being overly sensitive to the so-called "title"?

I don't recall running into the question before, so what do you think?

My local post office has had Nancy for as long as I can remember. We just call her Nancy. However in conversation at the local lunch table, located in a country store we refer to her as the Postmistress.

I have called her all three; Nancy, Postmaster and Postmistress and she responds to all of them. She retired last year and I never once remember her saying one word about what ever title we called her.

I would think it is a combination of age (as in the age of the postmaster) and size of community where these things become issues.

We have had a postmaster since April 5, 1832. I believe we have had 23 postmasters and only two have been women.

Reading "The Postmistress" by Sarah Blake might change the minds of those offended by the term.

Terry

In Canada here, I personally use both Postmaster and Postmistress, as referring to the head of the Post Offices that I regularly visit, depending on whether the head person is male or female.

I will have to ask the persons involved and see what they think about the matter, as some Post Offices are not corporate in Canada Post buildings but are associate offices located within pharamcies, drug stores or grocery stores.

There is a Postmistress in one of my local Post Offices that I can only think of as Grendel's Mother.

Terry

Being German and not very erudite, I never had heard the expression Grendel's Mother.
So I used wikipedia to learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grendel%27s_mother
Thank you, Terence Collins, for adding to my knowledge.

This is very simple. If the Postmaster is married and is seeing another woman, she is his "Postmistress".


-IBFS

Hi heinz55

Beowulf is the oldest known of the Anglo Saxon sagas having its roots in Nordic/Germanic mythology. Below is a modern artist's imagining of Grendel's Mother. Not the sort of girl to share a beer with.

Terry

I remember talking to a lady here that was once the postmaster of one of the local post offices here. When I asked here the years she held her position as 'postmistress', she politely asked me to use the term 'postmaster'. So, I have done so ever since for any other lady I talk to who hold that position.

That's my experience anyway.

Chimo

Bujutsu

A female relative of mine was postmaster of a small town in Arkansas. Although she preferred the title "Postmaster" she would answer to either and was offended by neither.