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mayday

Etymology and origin of the English word mayday

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈmeɪdeɪ/[1]

Etymology

An English spelling of the pronunciation of French m'aidez (“help me!”),[2][3][4] or of m'aider, short for venez m'aider “come help me!”.[2][5][6][4] It has nothing to do with the first of May.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An international radio-telephone distress call (1923 in Etymonline; 1927 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster).[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The signal was chosen by agreement in early 1923 at a meeting in London of representatives of the main European aircraft-building countries,[3] prompted by the growing number of passenger flights between London and Paris.[3] The Morse signal SOS was unsuitable for voice radio, since the sound of S was hard to hear, and mayday was chosen as an English word close to the French m'aidez.[3] It is used by ships and aircraft in distress, usually repeated three times.[2][4][1]

Timeline

  • 1923 – chosen as a voice distress call.[3]
  • 1927 – the first dates in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster.[5][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An international radio-telephone distress signal used by ships and aircraft.
  • distress signal
  • SOS
  • May Day

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
Cite this entry

“Mayday.” Etymologically, 11 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/mayday. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

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