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May

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "may"

English

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

From Middle English May, Mai, from Old French mai, from Latin Maius (“Maia's month”), from Maia, a Roman earth goddess.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

May (countable and uncountable, plural Mays)

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
 May (disambiguation) on Wikipedia
  2. The fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, following April and preceding June.
    Alternative form: 5
    Holonyms: calendar year; year
    Comeronyms: January, February, March, April, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
    • Before 1789, "Bonny Barbara Allen," traditional ballad, collected in Francis James Child and George Lyman Kittridge (1886), The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, vol. II, part II, p. 277:
      All in the merry month of May, / When green leaves they was springing, / This young man on his death-bed lay, / For the love of Barbara Allen.
    • 2025 August 6, Rachel Dobkin, “Significant parts of the Constitution were quietly removed from the Congress website”, in The Independent‎:
      In May, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller told reporters the Trump administration is “looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus for migrants under claims of an “invasion.”
  3. A female given name, usually pet name for Mary and Margaret, reinforced by the month and plant meaning.
    • 1856, E. D. E. N. Southworth, The Widow's Son, T. B. Peterson, published 1867, page 210:
      […] I will not send Owen's Lily May to the almshouse." "Lily―what?" demanded Mrs. Morley rather sharply, for she was half provoked with what she mentally called Amy's whim of keeping the outcast child when she might send it to the asylum. "Lily May," said Amy, smiling. "Her name is Mary, and we called her first Little Mary, and then Little May. But Owen calls her Lily May."
    • 1982, Ruth Rendell, The Fever Tree and Other Stories, Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 119:
      Their parents named them June and May because their birthdays occurred in those months. […] May was like the time of year in which she had been born, changeable, chilly and warm by turns, sullen yet able to know and show loveliness that couldn't last.
    • 2010, Margaret Forster, Isa & May, Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 5:
      It's an awkward name: Isamay, pronounced Is-a-may. Isa is my paternal grandmother's name (shortened from Isabel) and May my maternal grandmother's (it comes, somehow, from Margaret). The amalgamation is, as you see, strictly alphabetical. Life, I feel, would have been much easier if they had chosen Maybel.
  4. A surname from Middle English.
  5. A number of places in the United States:
    1. A former settlement in Amador County, California.
    2. An unincorporated community in Lemhi County, Idaho.
    3. An unincorporated community in McDonald County, Missouri.
    4. A small town in Harper County, Oklahoma.
    5. An unincorporated community in Brown County, Texas.
    6. An unincorporated community in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
    7. A number of townships in the United States, listed under May Township.
Usage notes
  • May (or Mae) is often used in conjoined names (e.g., Lillie Mae, Katie Mae, Fannie Mae).
Derived terms
Terms derived from May
Descendants
  • Bislama: mei
  • Pitcairn-Norfolk: Mieh
  • Tok Pisin: Mei
  • → Bengali: মে (me)
  • → Burmese: မေ (me)
  • → Chichewa: Meyi
  • → Dari: می (mey)
  • → Hausa: Mayu
  • → Hawaiian: Mei
  • → Hindi: मई (maī)
  • → Marshallese: Māe
  • → Maori: Mei
  • → Swahili: Mei
  • → Tokelauan: Me
  • → Tongan: Mē, Me
Translations

See also

Gregorian calendar monthsedit

Etymology 2

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 (“descendant of Miadhach”), a name derived from miadh (“honor”).
  • As a French surname, shortened from Lemay, Dumay.
  • Also as a French surname, from a derivative of Latin Marius, similar to Mario.
  • As a Jewish surname, from the town Mayen in Germany.
  • As a Chinese surname, from 麥 / 麦 (see Mai) and 梅 (méi)) (see Mei).
  • As an Amerindian (Mexico) surname of Mayan origin, from maay (“cloven hoof”), originally "young deer."

Proper noun

May (plural Mays)

  2. A surname.

Anagrams

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Cebuano

Etymology

From English May, from Middle English, from Old English, from Old French mai, from Latin maius (“Maia's month”), from Maia, a Roman earth goddess, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *magya (“she who is great”), from Proto-Indo-European base *meg- (“great”).

Proper noun

May

  1. a female given name from English
  2. a surname from English

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:May.

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Fijian

Proper noun

May

  1. May

See also

Gregorian calendar monthsedit

Middle French

Noun

May m (plural Mays)

  1. May (month)

Descendants

  • French: mai
    • Guianese Creole: mè
    • Haitian Creole: me
    • → English: may
    • → Iranian Persian: مه (me)
    • Louisiana Creole: mê
    • → South Azerbaijani: مه (mə)
    • → Tunisian Arabic: ماي (mēy)

Norwegian

Etymology

From English May.

Proper noun

May

  1. a female given name

Swedish

Etymology

From English May.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

May c (genitive Mays)

  1. a female given name

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from English May.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

May (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜒᜌ᜔)

  1. a female given name from English

Vietnamese

Etymology

From may (“lucky”). Compare Hạnh with the same meanings.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

May

  1. a female given name

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