May Queenn.
/ˈmeɪ kwiːn/, U.S. /ˈmeɪ ˌkwin/ Chiefly British.
A girl or young woman who is chosen to preside over May Day festivities as a queen, usually being gaily dressed and crowned with flowers.Quot. 1600 apparently refers to an allegorical entertainment played out before Queen Elizabeth I in 1591.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > social event > festive occasion > persons and characters > [noun] > characters in May-day festivities
May-lady1564
savage mana1577
green man1578
May Marian1582
May Queen1600
malkina1625
Jack o' the green1729
Jack-in-the-bush1792
Jack in the green1794
May Day sweep1832
green1836
Maid Marian1893
society > leisure > social event > festive occasion > persons and characters > [noun] > presiding > at May-day festivities
Queen of the May1506
May King1519
May-lady1564
May-lord1576
Lord (also King) of (the) May1577
May Queen1600
1600 Englands Helicon sig. F4v, (title) The Nimphes meeting their May Queene, entertaine her with this Dittie.
1783 F. G. Waldron Contin. Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd iii. 63 Nor, like a may-queen prank'd, a simpling go, Lest like a miry muckster I suld shew.
1832 Ld. Tennyson (title) The May Queen.
1863 R. Chambers Bk. of Days I. 572/2 The May Queen..was placed in a sort of bower or arbour, near the May-pole, there to sit in pretty state.
1910 J. Addams Twenty Years at Hull-House xiii. 291 Festivities of various sorts were held on this early playground, always a May day celebration with its Maypole dance and its May queen.
1995 Countryman Summer 55 How well they responded, to watch the crowning of the May Queen, the singing of appropriate songs..and dancing round the maypole.
Derivatives
ˈMay ˌQueenship n. rare the position or choice of a May Queen.
ΚΠ
1881 J. Ruskin Let. 4 Apr. in T. J. Wise Lett. to Faunthorpe (1895) I. 49 I hope the May Queenship is beginning to be thought of.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1600