It's just the feminine of "mister". By this reasoning, "mister" is also a loaded word, given it's even more directly related to "master". Not everyone who has ever been called a "master" of something owned slaves. Most were just the master of a house.

I'm 55 years old and never thought about that, because the link never occurred to me.

But when Mrs first stood for Mistress, the word Mistress wasn't "loaded" at all.

I never knew Mrs. stood for "mistress", I always thought it just came from "Mr's", as in, the wife of some mister

That's what "mistress" means.

Is it? Etymonline says it's not

https://www.etymonline.com/word/mistress

Originally shortened from Mistress, their meaning and pronunciation diverged bc of mistresses associated taboo.

> "Mistress" is a loaded word

Only in English.

Is english word

I always thought that it was Mrs. = missus, Ms. = miz, at least that’s how I would say them, but I now realize that a) that’s plainly incorrect and b) I’ve never actually ever seen them non-abbreviated.

If an abbreviation is never expanded, is it still an abbreviation? Personally I think it isn’t; I advocate for condensing i.e./e.g. to simply ie and eg, though this is a minority opinion.

Missus is a contraction of mistress (the feminine form of master/mister)

I think Mistress is primarily used in erotica or fetish communities.