Alex Beam, “Happy Anniversary, Ms.!” (Boston Globe, Nov. 1, 2011)
A civil rights activist named Sheila Michaels claimed to have created the title in 1961, but she admits that it was Gloria Steinem’s co-optation of the word for the 1971 launch of her magazine that put “Ms.’’ on the map. Language maven Ben Zimmer, who did much of the archeology on “Ms.,’’ notes that Michaels was plugging her new word on a public radio show.
(Read the rest here. Related On Language column, Word Routes column)