mayday
/ˈmæɪ̯deɪ̯/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.91 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An international distress signal used by shipping and aircraft.
noun
Alternative form of mayday.
noun
Misspelling of May Day.
Example Sentences
- ""Odd that she hasn't sent out a Mayday." "That is curious. Her radio must be disabled.""
- "The captain did a safety drill. This covered where the emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) was located, how to make a mayday call, and where the fire extinguishers were. A crew member demonstrated how to put on an immersion suit. These survival suits are waterproof full-body garments with a hood and integral three-finger gloves and boots. They are bulky and hard to get on but far more likely to save your life in cold water than a lifejacket."
Etymology
From the distress signal mayday, from French m'aider, short for Venez m'aider! (“Come to help me!”). The term was conceived in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport in England. He had been asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the air traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the term "mayday," the phonetic equivalent of the French m'aider.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: m'aider
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmæɪ̯deɪ̯/