May
Proto-Indo European had two words, meg and magh, which were similar in sound and meaning, and may have originally been the same word. By the time these two words reached English, they both sounded like may.
Meg meant “great, strong”, and is the root behind words like magnitude, magnum, magnate, major, majority, mayor, majesty, maestro, master, maximum, matador, omega, maharajah, and Mahatma. In Latin it became part of the name of Maia, the goddess of spring, whose name simply means “the great one (feminine singular)”. And of course, she gave her name to the month of May. (Note: there is also a Greek goddess Maia, but her name is derived from the PIE root ma, which is mother.)
Magh meant “to be able, to have power”, and is the root behind might, Matilda, machine, mechanism, Magi, magic, archmage, and (just barely possible) Amazon. It’s also behind the English modal auxiliary may (e.g. you may have some candy). May, like all Germanic modal auxiliaries, actually has two meanings that are subtly different: an “epistemic” meaning and a “deontic” meaning.
- Epistemic: factual status. You may be right. It may rain.
- Deontic: social status (permission, obligation). You may have some candy. You may call me “Bob”.
The “m” of may signifies creative force, and the long “a” sound following it does nothing but expand and extend that creation. In the original PIE roots, the creative power came to a conclusion with “g” or “gh”, both of which may have signified a return to Source — the garden, the grail, grace. But in modern English, since may is an open syllable (i.e. there are no closing consonants), the creative surge simply continues; which makes it one of the most powerful possible simple syllables.
