Mayday

[ mey-dey ]

/ ˈmeɪˌdeɪ /

noun

the international radiotelephone distress signal, used by ships and aircraft.

Origin of Mayday

1925–30; < French (venez) m'aider (come) help me!

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for mayday

Also like the Air France disaster, the pilots of AirAsia had no time to issue a mayday call.
Did Bad Weather Bring Down AirAsia 8501?|Clive Irving|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Watch what happens at the scene of a blaze when a radio call of “Mayday!”
Why the White Americans Got the ‘Secret’ Ebola Serum|Michael Daly|August 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Launched in May, Mayday PAC has raised nearly $8 million in donations from more than 50,000 contributors.
George Takei Sets Phasers to Reform|Tim Mak|July 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Another serious challenge to the Zombie Theory is the absence of any Mayday call from the pilots.
Passenger Flights Must Stop Carrying Lithium-Ion Batteries as Cargo|Clive Irving|May 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST

After their last routine exchange with controllers the pilots never sent any Mayday or distress message.
The Baseless Rush to Blame the Pilots of Flight 370|Clive Irving|March 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
So that, by "Mayday, 1747," the name was in all men's memories; and has continued ever since.
History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XVI. (of XXI.)|Thomas Carlyle
As a third pleasant anticipation, her class had planned a Mayday picnic at a point about two miles up the river.
Marjorie Dean High School Freshman|Pauline Lester
Somebody pick up our Mayday while we were cruising submerged?
Four-Day Planet|Henry Beam Piper
He expressed in his poems Voluntaries and Mayday views similar to those declared here.
Essays|Ralph Waldo Emerson
But here also his religious views stood in his way; the authorities eventually ordering him to leave the city by Mayday 1573.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4|Various

British Dictionary definitions for mayday

Mayday

/ (ˈmeɪˌdeɪ) /

noun

the international radiotelephone distress signal

Word Origin for Mayday

C20: phonetic spelling of French m'aidez help me

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for mayday

mayday

"distress call," 1923, apparently an Englished spelling of French m'aider, shortening of venez m'aider "come help me!" But possibly a random coinage with coincidental resemblance:

"May Day" Is Airplane SOS
ENGLISH aviators who use radio telephone transmitting sets on their planes, instead of telegraph sets, have been puzzling over the problem of choosing a distress call for transmission by voice. The letters SOS wouldn't do, and just plain "help!" was not liked, and so "May Day" was chosen. This was thought particularly fitting since it sounds very much like the French m'aidez, which means "help me." ["The Wireless Age," June 1923]

Mayday

noun

RELATED WORDS

Origin of Mayday

Examples from the Web for mayday

British Dictionary definitions for mayday

Mayday

noun

Word Origin for Mayday

Word Origin and History for mayday

mayday