Romance may feel bereft and nostalgia depleted, but Europe is determined to follow the route to political correctness. The German “Fräulein” as prefix was abandoned some time ago, for no one is a “little woman” nowadays, whatever her marital status. Even the Spanish “Señorita” is too old-fashioned for use, and has been cast out together with all the excitement and mystery it evoked. And now “Mademoiselle” is definitely on its way out of all official forms in France, for the government has accepted the point feminist groups have been trying to make since September last: why should women be forced to advertise their marital status when men get blithely by with “Monsieur” alone?

The validity and fairness of the point can hardly be underplayed, for just the presence of such distinctions in official and social terminology argues inherent heterosexual gender bias in the dominant culture. Trust the British to have negotiated these shoals with the least fuss and maximum stolidity: “Ms”, an incurably unattractive syllable midway between “Mrs” and “Miss”, and meaning, to everyone’s great relief, precisely nothing, is now accepted all over the world. It signifies gender, but nothing more. To be politically correct, though, requires sleepless vigilance. Is it fair to signify gender? What prefix should transsexuals have?

That, however, is rather a long way from where France is at the moment. Few mourned the exit of “Miss” and “Mrs” on aesthetic, nostalgic or romantic grounds, for the words are singularly lacking in euphony and, in spite of, say, the fascinating Misses Bennet or the unforgettable Miss Earnshaw, short on seductive associations. But the loss of a “Señorita” or, now, a “Mademoiselle”, is somehow like the loss of an elusive cultural, perhaps just literary, nuance. The “Madame” of Madame Bovary did carry a world of meaning. But frills are almost always politically incorrect.

That is something France evidently took time to accept, although its triumphant feminists are being asked whether this is the right time to expend energy on issues such as prefixes instead of focusing on the grave imbalance in pay and status between men and women in social, professional and political life. Skewed cultural attitudes require more than cosmetic changes, say the critics. But whatever France does is still fashion, a bit late though it may have been in the political correctness race. So even when not in Paris, it is fashionable to do as Parisians do. Sending “Srimati” down the same path as “Mademoiselle”, even if the former does not indicate marital status, may actually be quite the thing. There would be an immediate gain in crispness, spoken time and printed space, as well as a leap in political correctness, for “Sri” shows no bias in gender or sexuality. The loss would be, again, in those dispensable things: nuances, histories and a beautiful word.