Messrs (the plural form of both Mr. and Monsieur) is a rather odd little word, and was previously relegated to only fringe legal text. Now, at least here in Canada, it is everywhere -- across every newspaper, in letters to the editor, in blog entries, and so on.

I find this fascinating, as I first saw this outside of academic texts about two years ago in one column of the National Post. Slowly it took root, appearing in more and more columns, until now it appears to be in their standard style text: Somehow every article must talk about multiple men, if only to fit a Messrs in there.

Quickly it spread: to the Globe and Mail, and then the Toronto Star, and I've even seen it appearing in the Toronto Sun.

Fascinating how a piece of language is so by example, which was sort of the point of my prior spelling matters entry.