save my soul .. i was wondering what were the origins of "may day"?

Dave Wilton goes along with the theory that it is from the French m'aider.
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorm.htm#mayday.

Michael Quinion agrees, more or less, differing only in his choice of the French m'aidez.

Others may disagree.

I used to fiddle a bit with amateur radio, and that was the explanation given in ARRL enchiridion.

Can anyone support the notion that SOS is used purely because it is easy to remember and emit in Morse, ie it was not originally an acronym?

SOS..Save Our Ship?

>SOS..Save Our Ship?

save our souls

My first exposure to SOS was for "save our ship;" "souls" was a pious emendation later on. (But I have no claim to authority for this.)

RE: My first exposure to SOS was for "save our ship;" "souls" was a pious emendation later on.

Me too, but i have since learned, when a plane goes down (and maybe a ship too) the passengers are refered to as souls, maybe not always in the newpaper, but by the investigators, and authorities, (FAA, Crash investigation team, etc).

it seems to me, a commercial ship sink with "Hands" (small fishing boat capsizes, 3 aboard, all hand lost..) and a passenger vessel has souls..
(with hands, both officers and seamen are equal in death, with souls, crew and passengers are equal.)

Dear doc_comfort: I don't remember for sure, but think it was indeed chosen for its
easy sending and recognition. It was an International signal, and as acronym would have
no value to the very large number of vessels operated by non-English speakers.

... ---... ...---... ...---...

From www.arrl.org
SOS

The amateur distress call, QRRR, grew from the purpose of the first organized amateur emergency nets. They were set up in
cities along the Pennsylvania Railroad to aid the "Pennsy" (and later other railroads) with train communications in the event of
failure of the railroad telegraph landlines--which were frequent. The signal QRR came to be used to indicate that the calling
station had railroad traffic related to some emergency. ARRL eventually adopted this call for use by any amateur who had
distress traffic and later the call was changed to QRRR because of a conflict in definitions with the international Q signal QRR.

One of the first distress calls was CQD, coined by the Marconi Company about 1904 from the "general call" CQ and the letter
D for "distress." The main problem with CQD was that it was supposed to be used only by ships which subscribed to the
Marconi radio system and ships of one system were discouraged from communicating with ships or shore stations of other,
competing, companies. The problem got so bad that it was taken up in the international radio conference in 1906 where a new
universal distress call was proposed.

The American delegation suggested the letters NC which were already recognized in the International Signal Code for Visual
Signalling. The German delegation proposed its own SOE which was already in use on German ships as a general inquiry signal
similar to CQ (which was then used only by the Marconi system). The British delegation, of course, wanted to stick to the
Marconi signal CQD.

The convention found SOE acceptable except that the final E could easily be lost in QRN so the letter S was substituted,
making it SOS. The convention decided that SOS should be sent as a single code character with a sound unlike any other
character, thus arresting the attention of anyone hearing it. So was officially adopted, but CQD remained in use for some years,
particularly aboard British ships.

It wasn't until 1912, after the Titanic disaster, that SOS became universal and the use of CQD gradually disappeared. Titanic
radio operator Jack Phillips sent both CQD and SOS to be sure that there couldn't possibly be any misunderstanding.

[SOS does not stand for Save Our Ship or Save Our Souls - Ed.]

Mayday

Incidentally, another distress call is used by aircraft in trouble throughout the world. We have all heard the term "mayday" at
some time. This, of course, has nothing to do with the first day in May. As it turns out, in French, the word "m'aidez" means
"help me". Is it possible that American aviators in World War I picked this up from their French comrades and mispronounced
it as the easily recognized "mayday, mayday"?

I would think it came from m'aidez, not m'aider. Aidez is second person plural, as in "you--any of you--help me"; aider is 'to help'. 'To help me' doesn't make a whole lot of sense, if that is all that is said.

Erm-- as a child I "learned" from watching 101 Dalmatians (the '61 version) that SOS means Save Our Skins!

I have no problem with the m'aidez or varients thereof as a trouble signal for aircraft.
That said, I remember that in late 1940s - at the end of WWII - May Day was taken over by USSR as a celebration of communism. Parades in Red Square and all that!
Then along came the lawyers and they started calling it Law Day as a counterpoint - the first time I heard of lawyers giving free advice was on call-in radio shows as a public service on May 1st to celebrate Law Day. That was in the 1950s.
Then I went to Hawai'i and discovered that : "May Day is Lei Day in Hawai'i." People give and wear lei. A contest is held for various types of lei and the entries are exhibited in a special area near the stage in Kapi'olani Park. They are magnificent. If you are ever in Hawaii on the First of May .... well ... lucky you!

in late 1940s - at the end of WWII - May Day was taken over by USSR

Its connection with the worker dates back to the 1880s.

http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/mayday.html

Lei Day

I think that Lei Day should be a National Holiday...and that everyone should participate! The following week would likely be the most pleasant one on the calendar, dealing-with-people-wise.

It was an International signal, and as acronym would have
no value to the very large number of vessels operated by non-English speakers.

This sounds supiciously like laudably clear, logical thinking, Dr. Bill. It makes me think that the odds are very good that SOS at it conception didn't stand for anything, unless it was, "so this it, we're going to die".

Dear sjm: If you are going to quote me, why not use the whole quote.
"Dear doc_comfort: I don't remember for sure, but think it was indeed chosen for its
easy sending and recognition. It was an International signal, and as acronym would have
no value to the very large number of vessels operated by non-English speakers."

... ---... ...---... ...---...

You're miffed at receiving a compliment?

"suspiciously" sounded like sarcasm. Sorry.

You're miffed at receiving a compliment?

No, he's Dr. Bill.

max, remember the irony deafness thread?

>max, remember the irony deafness thread?


It is now painfully obvious that I ought to have, anyway.

Hey--how come there's pun blindness but irony deafness?

because you have to o-pun your eyes, and iron-your cloth ears...