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Mayor is an English and Spanish-language surname with several etymological origins. The English-language name is sometimes a variant spelling of Mayer, [1] and thus derived from the Middle English and Old French mair, maire (in turn derived from the Latin maior, meaning "greater", "superior"); this surname originated from the title of a mayor. [2]
In modern Spanish, the term alcalde is equivalent to a mayor, and is used to mean the local executive officer in municipalities throughout Spain and Latin America. For example, the title alcalde continued to be used in the Spanish-speaking American Commonwealth of Puerto Rico after the occupation of the island during the Spanish–American War in
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as the means by which a mayor is elected or otherwise mandated. Depending on the system chosen, a mayor ...
from Spanish chocolate, from Nahuatl xocolatl meaning "hot water" or from a combination of the Mayan word chocol meaning "hot" and the Nahuatl word atl meaning "water." Choctaw from the native name Chahta of unknown meaning but also said to come from Spanish chato (="flattened") because of the tribe's custom of flattening the heads of male infants.
The name comes from the word corregir, meaning "to correct". He was the highest authority of a corregimiento. In the Spanish Americas and the Spanish Philippines, a corregidor was often called an alcalde mayor. [1] They began to be appointed in Pre-Spanish Imperial fourteenth century Castile.
The origin is from maior domūs (Latin for 'principal of the house'), and it was borrowed into English from Spanish mayordomo or Old Italian maiordomo.Also, it is found as French majordome, modern Italian maggiordomo, Portuguese and Galician mordomo, and Romanian and Catalan as majordom.
Because Spanish is a Romance language (which means it evolved from Latin), many of its words are either inherited from Latin or derive from Latin words. Although English is a Germanic language , it, too, incorporates thousands of Latinate words that are related to words in Spanish. [ 3 ]
In England (and the Commonwealth) the designated female consort of a mayor is usually styled Mayoress or occasionally Mrs Mayor and accompanies the mayor to civic functions. [3] [4] A female mayor is also called mayor, not, as sometimes erroneously called, "Lady Mayoress". A mayoress or Lady Mayoress is a female consort of a mayor or Lord Mayor ...