May

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To be able; can.

   But many times[…]we give way to passions we may resist and will not.

2. 2
   verb

   To be able to go.

   O weary night, O long and tedious night, Abate thy houres, shine comforts from the East, That I may backe to Athens by day-light […].

3. 3
   verb

   To have permission to, be allowed. Used in granting permission and in questions to make polite requests.

   you may smoke outside

4. 4
   verb

   Granting the admissibility of a supposition, in a way that can be semantically either subjunctive or indicative.

   he may be lying

5. 5
   verb

   Expressing a wish (with present subjunctive effect).

   may you win;  may the weather be sunny;  long may your reign last

6. 6
   verb

   Used in modesty, courtesy, or concession, or to soften a question or remark.

   How old may Phillis be, you ask, / Whose Beauty thus all Hearts engages.

7. 7
   noun

   The hawthorn bush or its blossoms.

   The fire from Lindfield was coming down the grassy hillside to the right between the hedges of may.

8. 8
   verb

   To gather may, or flowers in general.

   Soo it befelle in the moneth of May / quene Gueneuer called vnto her knyȝtes of the table round / and she gafe them warnynge that erly vpon the morowe she wold ryde on mayeng in to woodes & feldes besyde westmynstre. "So it befell in the month of May, Queen Guenever called unto her knights of the Table Round; and she gave them warning that early upon the morrow she would ride a-Maying into woods and fields beside Westminster."

Etymology

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…