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maio

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word maio

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1255 More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin Maius
Ultimate origin
Latin Maius

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈmaj.u/, [ˈmaɪ̯.u][1]
  • Portugal: /ˈmaj.u/[1]

Forms

maio m (plural maios)[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote mayo, maio and mao, and Houaiss records maiio in 1365.[2][3][4] Bluteau still heads the word Mayo.[5] Until the spelling reforms (1943 in Brazil, 1990 in Portugal) the month was written with a capital, Maio.[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Maius (“May”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mayo in the oldest texts.[2][3][1] The same Latin word is Galician maio, Spanish mayo, Catalan maig, Occitan mai, French mai and Italian maggio.[6][1]

The Latin word is an adjective used as a noun, with mēnsis (“month”) understood.[2][7] The Romans already argued about its origin: Varro derived it from maiōrēs (“the elders”), and Cincius from the goddess Maia, whom he made the wife of Vulcan.[7][8] The OLD takes it probably from the name of an old god Maius, related to magnus (“great”).[7] Wiktionary connects the goddess's name with Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“great”), and says it was later confused with the Greek Μαῖα (Maîa), the mother of Hermes.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to 1255.[2] Galician documents of the following years date their deeds vii dias andados de Mayo “seven days into May” (1260) and iij dias andados de maio (1265), and one of 1266 writes ino mes de mao.[9][4] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a song welcomes the month: Ben vennas, Mayo, e con alegria “welcome, May, and with joy”.[4]

Semantic evolution

Because armies took the field in spring, the medieval word also meant the mustering of troops for a campaign: a cantiga speaks of ũa maia das que fezemos no maio.[10] Houaiss records the old figurative sense “an expedition against the Moors in spring”.[2]

The festivals of the first days of May gave the word other senses: the original Caldas Aulete has the árvore de maio, a tree or branch put at someone's door on the first of May in his honour, and maio for a person decked with flowers.[11] In the Azores it is a straw figure made for these festivities, and in Galicia a boy covered in flowers who sings in them.[12][13] The REW notes that the sense “May tree” grew out of the spring festivals of France and spread to Italy and Spain.[6] Figuratively maio is springtime, a time of flowers and joy.[2][14] As an adjective it qualifies what appears or flowers in May, and in Portugal maios are irises.[2][12]

The word passed into Guinea-Bissau Creole and Kabuverdianu as mai and into Tetum as maiu.[1]

Timeline

  • 1255 – first record.[2]
  • 1260 – vii dias andados de Mayo in a Galician document.[9]
  • 1265 – iij dias andados de maio.[4]
  • 1266 – the form mao.[4]
  • 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria greet the month: Ben vennas, Mayo.[4]
  • 1365 – the spelling maiio.[2]
  • 1534 – a private letter writes maio.[15]
  • 1755 – Folqman gives the Latin Maius.[16]
  • 1789 – Morais defines it as the fifth month, between April and June, with 31 days.[17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. May, the fifth month of the Julian and Gregorian calendars, with 31 days.[2][1][14]
  2. (figurative) A time of flowers and joy; springtime.[2][14][12]
  3. A person decked out with flowers;[2][12][18] (Azores) a straw figure made for the May festivities.[2][12][18]
  4. (figurative, obsolete) A spring expedition against the Moors.[2]
  5. (Portugal, botany, in the plural) Irises and their cultivated hybrids;[2][12] (Alentejo) the iris flower, or a yellow and white daisy.[2][12]

Adjective

  1. Of the month of May; appearing or flowering in May.[2][12][14]
  • maia
  • Latin Maius
  • Galician maio
  • Spanish mayo

Usage notes

The Cape Verdean island of Maio got its name, according to Nascentes, from its discovery on 1 May 1460.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. maio
  3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. maio
  4. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. maio
  5. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. maio
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5250
  7. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. maius
  8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. maius
  9. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. mayo
  10. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. maio
  11. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. maio
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. maio
  13. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. maio
  14. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. maio
  15. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. maio
  16. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. maio
  17. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 43
  18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. maio
  19. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. maio

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Maio.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/maio. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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