FromMaia, the name or epithet of a goddess. The name may have originally been a native Latin formation from a feminine suffixed form ofProto-Indo-European*méǵh₂s(“great”) that was eventually conflated withAncient GreekΜαῖα(Maîa,“Maia”), daughter of Atlas and mother of Hermes, whose name is derived fromμαῖα(maîa,“lady”).
In Classical Latin, month names were regularly used as adjectives, generally modifying a case-form ofmēnsism sg(“month”) or of one of the nouns used in theRoman calendar to refer to specific days of the month from which other days were counted:Calendaef pl(“calends”),Nōnaef pl(“nones”),Īdūsf pl(“ides”). However, the masculine nounmēnsis could be omitted byellipsis, so the masculine singular forms of month names eventually came to be used as proper nouns.[3]
The accusative plural adjective formsAprīlīs,Septembrīs,Octōbrīs,Novembrīs,Decembrīs[4] are ambiguous in writing, being spelled identically to the genitive singular forms of the nouns; nevertheless, the use of ablative singular forms in-ī and comparison with the usage of other month names as adjectives supports the interpretation of-is as an accusative plural adjective ending in Classical Latin phrases such as "kalendas Septembris".[5]
These borrowings are ultimately but perhaps not directly from Latin. They are organized into geographical and language family groups, not by etymology.
Cicero wroteii to express the sound of the second element of ani-diphthong before a vowel (see ch. ii. § 55), e.g.aiio, Maiia, Aiiax (Quint, i. 4. II; Vel. Long. 7.54 K. : et in plerisque Cicero videtur auditu emensus scriptionem, qui et ‘Aiiacem’ et ‘Maiiam’ per duo i scribenda existimavit.
^Nishimura, Kanehiro (2011), “Notes on Glide Treatment in Latin Orthography and Phonology:-iciō, servus, aiō”, inHistorische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics, volume124, page193:
It is well known that Latin orthography tends to avoid gemination of ⟨i⟩ for two successivei̯-glides [...] The most classic case may bemaior 'larger'; its phonological representation is /mai̯i̯or/ [...] the provision of a macron (i.e.,māior, as if the vowel were long) in order to display the syllable weight — the way common in a number of grammar books and dictionaries — is utterly misleading in that it disguises the phonological reality. [...] Note also Cicero's preference for [...] "Maiiam" [...] Whatever the original Greek phonetic values of [...] Μαῖα, the glide seems to have at least phonetically filled both the coda of the first syllable and the onset of the second when borrowed into Latin (see Hoenigswald 1949: 394 and Godel 1953: 93).
^Karl Gottlob Zumpt (1853), Leonhard Schmitz, Charles Anthon, transl.,A Grammar of the Latin Language, 3rd edition,pages31, 85
^Gaeng, Paul A. (1968),An Inquiry into Local Variations in Vulgar Latin: As Reflected in the Vocalism of Christian Inscriptions, page183
^Frost, P. (1861),The Germania and Agricola of Tacitus,page161
^Forschungen, Stefan; Matzinger, Joachim (2013),Die Verben des Altalbanischen: Belegwörterbuch, Vorgeschichte und Etymologie (Albanische Forschungen;33) (in German), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz,→ISBN, page213
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