May

The fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, following April and preceding June.

Proper noun

  1. The fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, following April and preceding June.
    • Holonyms: calendar year; year
    • 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. - Before 1789, "Bonny Barbara Allen," traditional ballad, collected in...
    • At a signing ceremony in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on May 29, the presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan ratified the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) into existence. An EEU modeled on the European Union was first...

    Synonyms: Fifth Month

    Related: mul:5 January February March April June July August September October November December

  2. A female given name, usually pet name for Mary and Margaret, reinforced by the month and plant meaning.
    • […] 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...
    • 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...
    • 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,...
  3. A surname from Middle English.

    1. Theresa May, former British prime minister.

  4. 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.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂sder.? Latin Maia Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Italic *-os Old Latin -os Latin -us Latin Maiusder. Old French maibor. Middle English May English May From Middle English May, Mai, from Old French mai, from Latin Maius (“Maia's month”), from Maia, a Roman earth goddess.

Forms

Mays Ma Mae

Wikipedia

May

Related

Cinco de Mayo

Derived

Black May Bloody May Cambus o' May have climbed May Hill Italian may King of May King of the May Lady of the May Lord of May Lord of the May May 7th May and December May and January May apple mayapple May Ball May-bean May beetle May-bird maybird May bishop May blob May bloom May blossom

Proper noun Entry 2

  1. A surname.

Origin

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)...

Forms

Mays Ma Mae