Metaphor of the Month Mayday! Richmond Writing

Metaphor of the Month Mayday! Richmond Writing This internationally recognized call for help has long been common parlance, but until today, when I checked the OED listing, I had no idea of its origin. A 1923 usage listed gives us all we need to know: Owing to the difficulty of distinguishing the letter ‘S’ by telephone, the international distress signal ‘S.O.S.’   will give place to the words ‘May-day’, the phonetic equivalent of ‘Maidez’, the French for ‘Help me’. Fascinating and perhaps our briefest post yet. Good luck with finals, students! Have a word or metaphor worth pondering? This blog will continue all summer.  Please nominate a word or metaphor useful in academic writing by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below. See all of our Metaphors of the Month  here  and Words of the Week  here. Image courtesy of Pixabay.