Today (a fine day in May!) my father-in-law asked me "I heard that the word 'mayday' has a French origin. What does it mean?"
Well, this was certainly news to me and a bit vexing personally as I have a fondness for words that slip their home language and become adopted/perverted in a new language to the point where they are not so easily recognized.
First I thought of the date: a day in May, May First which is a holiday. None of those sound like 'mayday' in French and certainly didn't seem to be connected to a sinking ship. I had a brief thought about "Aidez moi" which is a literal 'help me' - but that's obviously not right in sound (but correct in meaning).
A few minutes later (well after I could have sounded smart and sophisticated by responding right away), I hit upon the reflexive form "M'aidez" which was obviously the source of the anglificiation "mayday'.
Turns out I was stuck in thinking-in-english-and-translating-into-french mode. If only I had tried to have a french monologue in my head, I think I would have hit on the solution quicker. So my slow efforts at solving this multilingual puzzle turned out to be a reminder of how important flexible thinking is in problem solving.
Before crying 'Au Secours!', one should think of how to pose the issue you need help with in an other language or from a different point of view!
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