Mayday Mayday!

Why do people say "mayday mayday" for asking help? Where was it from? Do you have to say mayday twice to mean "help"? Or once would do?

i know what mayday means. all i wanted to know was where was the expression from.

thanks.

"Mayday" is converted from the French "venez m'aider".  Through English pronounciation, the second part of the French word, m'aider, sounded like "Mayday".  
Since it is usually called from a rather stressful condition, the call is usually given three times in a row to prevent mistaking it for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions.  

(wikipedia.org)

[ 本帖最後由 paohenlee 於 2008-3-6 22:05 編輯 ]