Etymology

mai

M3A1I1

Today it means: A female given name, a rare spelling variant of Mae/May, or borrowed from Scandinavia, with the same ultimate origin. Full definition →

Japanese マイ ← English my
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mai · determiner1

  1. English · derived frommy
  2. Japanese · borrowed fromマイ
  3. English todaymai

Orthographic borrowing from the romanized form of Japanese マイ (mai), in turn a borrowing from English my, which it is treated as an alternate form of.

Mai · proper noun2

  1. Cantonese · derived from買 /买“buy”
  2. Mandarin · derived from麥 /麦“wheat”
  3. English todayMai

Chinese surname with several origins: * from Mandarin 麥 /麦 (“wheat”), * from Mandarin and Cantonese 買 /买 (maai⁵, “buy”) * Cantonese form of 米 (see Mi). * Romanized from 马 (mǎ) (see Ma) * Romanized from 梅 (méi) (see Mei) As a German surname, variant of May.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.