mies, noun
/mis/
- Origin:
- AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, shortened form of miesies (see miesies).
a. As a title used with a name, especially of an employer: ‘Miss’, ‘Mistress’. Cf. miesies sense 2 b.
1963 A.M. Louw 20 Days 18Hein had been an adoptive Hottentot boy...Aia Meidjie had brought Hein at the age of two to be taught and reared by ‘Mies Susanna’.
1964 J. Meintjes Manor House 37It’s all Mies Julia’s doing. Poor heart, she’s taken the baas’s death very badly. Maraai told me last night that Mies Julia seems to have become a bit funny in the head.
b. As a common noun: a White woman, especially an employer; cf. missus sense 1 a.
1978 Speak Vol.1 No.3, 26‘Mies is die mies.’ Magda’s tautology is not merely her own: it belongs to her position in the heart of her country. To the majority of those around her a ‘mies’ is a ‘mies’ is a ‘mies’, a definition needing no outside sphere of reference.
c. With qualifying word:
1990 C. Laffeaty Far Forbidden Plains 363No, Nonnie. No. Your Mamma — the Oumies — she fall down dead.
‘Miss’, ‘Mistress’.
As a common noun: a White woman, especially an employer;
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