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It comes from the French “venez m’aider” and means “come help me”. The expression was coined in 1923 by Frederick Mockford, a radio officer at London’s Croydon Airport, who was given the task of finding a word that would be easily understood by people of different nationalities in a world in which radio communication was growing rapidly – until then, communication was mostly done via telegraph. As most of the flights operated there had Paris as their origin or destination, the use of an expression in French that sounded good in English came in handy. In 1927, Mayday was adopted by the International Radiotelegraph Convention and its correct use entails repeating the word three times, accompanied by the term “This is”, so that it is not confused with other sounds in noisy conditions. In addition to aircraft, vessels also use Mayday.
READER QUESTION Willian Rodrigues Sobral, Sao Paulo, SP
SOURCES Oxford Dictionaries, Croydon Airport and itu.int websites; book Is It True? The Facts Behind the Things We Have Been Told, by Max Cryer