Distress call MAYDAY?

Question

S.O.S means Save Our Souls
OK means Zero Killed
Does anyone know the exact meaning of the word Mayday, when used in a ditress call.And its origens

Answer 1

Mayday is an internationally understood distress call invented by the English who, erroneously, thought that M'aidez was French for 'Help me'. During the 1920's and 1930's French was more of an International language than English was hence this adaptation. Unfortunately in France they would say 'Aidez moi', not 'm'aidez'. However the call sign has been universally adopted.
S O S can mean 'Save Our Souls' or, more likely 'Save Our Ship', again adopted due to it's simplicity in transmitting by The oldest written references to 'OK' result from its adoption as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840. Their candidate, President Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed 'Old Kinderhook' (after his birthplace in New York State), and his supporters formed the 'OK Club'.

Answer 2

Mayday is an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications, derived from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come [to] help me."[1] When the "venez" is dropped and the remaining words are pronounced in English, you get "mayday", a word currently understood around the world as a distress call. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency by many groups, such as police forces, pilots, the fire brigade, and transportation organizations. The call is always given three times in a row ("Mayday Mayday Mayday") to prevent mistaking it for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual mayday call from a message about a mayday call.

Answer 3

Mayday is an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications, derived from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come [to] help me." When the "venez" is dropped and the remaining words are pronounced in English, you get "mayday", a word currently understood around the world as a distress call. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency by many groups, such as police forces, pilots, the fire brigade, and transportation organizations. The call is always given three times in a row ("Mayday Mayday Mayday") to prevent mistaking it for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual mayday call from a message about a mayday call.

Answer 4

SOS does not mean "Save our Souls." SOS is used because it is easy to remember for use in Morse Code (three dots, two dashes, and three dots). I'm pretty sure OK does not mean Zero Killed, either.

I did check on Wikipedia, and I found that the word Mayday derives from the French phrase "venez m'aider" which basically means "come help me."

Answer 5

The words "May Day" is the Anglicised version of a French phrase meaning 'help'.

Answer 6

mayday means help
it was started in 1948 by Ocean ships in distress or serious in danger. It is now use in firefighter when a firefighter needs help because they are in distress or serious harm or danger.

Answer 7

I have it from a French pilot I knew when I was stationed overseas that it is, indeed, French in origin, but it is not from "M'aidez".

It is from "Merde". A pilot in trouble would be most likely to shout "Merde! Merde!" into the microphone than anything else, and let's get serious, just how DO you help a pilot in a plane with engines in flames?

No, they were shouting "Merde" which is French for "Oh, sh*t!"

Answer 8

mayday is the english for the french m'aidez which means help me or m'aider which means render help to me.

Answer 9

From the French M'aidez - help me

Answer 10

http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/mayday-sos.html