I've seen enough posts related to etymology or historical use of words where they, either misrepresent the facts to fit a narrative or just make shit up, that I try to look it up my self. I also find etymology fascinating so that helps.

In this case they are absolutely right.

Both Mr and. Mrs,ms are derived from master and mistress (teachers) and both of those words stem from the Latin word Magister.

Edit: fun fact the English verb stick is the same word as the noun stick and comes from the same origin the Germanic word stik which also meant a piece of wood and to pierce/adhere or sharp. But wait it's older than that the Latin word stigare also means pierce. And share the same ancestry, namely indo-european. Turns out we humans have been talking about sticks for a long time.

...crap, I'm cis male and I wanna be addressed as "mage"...

I am legit going to use Magister as a replacement option for Mr/Mrs. It's formal, archaic, and gender neutral. That's the trifecta right there

...why not just "magister" and avoid a word that already has very strong, current connotations with fantasy?

Also if you have to hand someone off to another colleague, I find you can just use "we", and it still feels polite. At least compared to calling them "the customer" (clumsy) or "they" (weird, when they're right next to you). 😃

"So, we're looking for [product], and we need it to be [thing]. Oh, and we have a budget of £25."

Scotland approves 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

You're amazing and so are your questions.

I'm looking for a third option for sir/ma'am, and a substitute for Chief that's a bit more formal.

The culture I'm in now is not as formal, this isn't so much finding something to work within the culture of this area as it is to marry my culture to the one I find myself in. I have very little to connect me to my people here and so the traditions I choose to keep are more important as a result. I like saying sir/ma'am. It's the verbal equivalent of holding the door open for someone. But for some people being addressed that way is invalidating, and I want to meet people where they are, not force them to come to me.

I like Magister as a third option for Mr/Mrs., and Professor as a more formal Chief. But sir/ma'am has me stumped

Clearly we need to start adopting Japanese honorifics that way we can just call people -san.

'San' is gendered /s

I just stopped using pronouns altogether.

“Excuse me” “Thank you” “I appreciate you” “Do you know the way to San Jose”

ALL of these have pronouns. At least one of them has multiple pronouns! Haha

You is a pronoun btw, just it's only used in specific contexts

But what if they are an MMA fighter?

Came here to say this, or "cap"

Sup, bozo?

FWIW, Sir is not gender neutral in Gamestop.

Sir is gender neutral in fictional militaries. Every woman holding a commission I ever encountered was ma'am. Didn't matter the country.

Sir hasn’t been gender neutral in my military for like 30 years at least

Not sure what military you served in, but the one I served in definitely didn’t call women sir until instructed otherwise. However, “mister” may be correct for all warrant officers.

Not really...

Like, yeah, probably in Star Trek, but that would have been a projected evolution of modern society, not a reflection of current reality.

Everyone would assume "sir" and if it's over an email no one is getting worked up about it.

But call a female officer "sir" to her face and I don't think it will go well

No, I got yelled at when I didn't see.

I'm not your friend, buddy!

Don't like forced closeness as a neutral greeting, comes across to me as either manipulative or meaningless.

It works for person's of middle eastern cultural descent for sure, but it's fairly casual for a native English speaker from Appalachia