May

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   Used to ask for or give permission.

   May I leave the room?

2. 2
   verb

   Used to say that something is possible.

   He may be lying about where he was.

3. 3
   verb

   Used to express a wish or hope.

   May you have a long and happy life.

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.”

The surname is converged from several origins: * As an English surname, from Middle English May, a pet form of Matthew (see Mayhew). * As an English, Dutch, German, Polish, and Jewish surname, from the name of the month. * Also as an English surname, occasionally a pet form of Mary or Margaret. * Also as an English surname, from the obsolete noun may (“kinsman”), from Old English maga (“son, relative”). * Also as an English surname, from obsolete Middle English mei (“physician”), a borrowing from Old English mege, from Latin medicus. See Mee. * As an Irish surname, Anglicized from Ó Miadhaigh…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary