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mayedmayingmays
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Simplified etymology
May is traditionally said to take its name from Maia, a fertility and spring goddess in Roman mythology who was identified with the Greek Maia. Since the late Middle Ages, may has also denoted hawthorn or its blossom because the plant typically flowered during the month. The distress call Mayday, coined in the 1920s, has a separate origin in French m’aider, from venez m’aider, meaning “come and help me.”