If you frequent our posts, you may detect a common theme: behind the everyday nature of common words, surprising meaning and history often lurk. Case in point: this very month of May.
如果你經常看我們的文章,你會發現一個共同的主題,在每個日常詞彙的背後,往往藏著令人驚訝的含義和歷史。比如五月(May)這個月份。
The fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, May, is named after a goddess named Maia. But which goddess named Maia? There are actually two. The Greek goddess Maia was one of the Pleiades, the companions of Artemis. This Maia was the mother of Hermes, the messenger of the Gods. But the Romans had yet another goddess named Maia, who just happened to share a name with the Greek goddess. The Roman Maia was named for the Latin word for large, maius, and she was associated with growth and the spring. As the Romans adopted many elements of Greek culture, the two goddesses became conflated and gave their name to the fifth month.
五月(May)是公曆第五個月,是以一位名叫邁亞(Maia)的女神命名的。但這個邁亞是誰呢?實際上有兩個名叫邁亞的女神。希臘女神邁亞是阿特拉斯的七個女兒普勒阿得斯(Pleiades)七仙女之一,阿爾忒彌斯(Artemis)的同伴。這個邁亞是赫耳墨斯(Hermes)的母親,上帝的信使。而在羅馬神話裡,還有一個邁亞女神,恰巧和這個希臘女神同名。羅馬的Maia很可能由拉丁語maius演變而來,是「生長」和「春日」的意思。由於羅馬人吸取了很多希臘文化的元素,這兩位女神便合併成一位,並將其姓名賦予五月之上。
赫爾墨斯和他的母親邁亞女神,古希臘公元前500年的雙耳瓶上人物畫
However, there is another suggestion that the month is not named for these intertwined goddesses at all. The Latin poet Ovid claimed that the month may have been named after the Latin word maiores, 「elders,」 to juxtapose it to the month of June, which was named after iuniores, the Latin word for youth.
然而還有一種說法,說五月份並不是以這兩個女神命名的。古羅馬詩人奧維德(Ovid)說,這個月可能是以拉丁文「maiores」——「長者」而命名的,這和六月(June)相併列,因為六月的詞源是拉丁詞語「iuniores」,意為「青年」。
The month of May entered English from the Old French in the 1000s. In Old English, the month of May and 「mother may I」 could not be confused because there was another name for the month of May. Sadly, we lost the Old English word for the fifth month of the year: þrimilce. It literally meant 「three milkings」 because it was the only month of the year when cows could be milked three times per day. May’s confusion with may (the verb) is a small linguistic coincidence, not a meaningful overlap. The verb may came from the Old English word magan meaning 「to be able.」
五月在11世紀古代法語演變為英語。在古英語中,五月的May和平時用語「母親我可以(may)……嗎?」中的may毫不混淆,因為五月還有另外一個用詞。但遺憾的是,我們現在已經遺失了這個用來描述第五個月份的古英語詞彙——þrimilce。它的字面意思是「擠三次奶」,因為五月是唯一一個一年中奶牛可以一天擠三次奶的月份。五月的May和動詞may的混淆只是語言學上的一個小的巧合,含義上毫無關聯。動詞may來源於古英語詞彙「magan」,意思是「可以,能夠」。
What do you think of the two Maias? Could you go back to using the Old English word instead?
你覺得這兩個邁亞(Maia)如何?你還會回溯過去,使用古英語來表達月份嗎?