Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MAY-OR, n. [Fr. maire; Norm. maeur, mair, meyre; Arm. mear; W. maer, one stationed, one that looks after or tends, one that keeps or guards, a provost, a mayor, a bailif; maer y biswal, a land steward, the keeper of a cow-lair; maer-drev, a dairy hamlet; maerdy, a dairy farm; maeron, a male-keeper or dairy-farmer; maeres, a female who looks after, a dairy woman; maeroni, the office of a keeper, superintendency, mayoralty; Arm. miret, to keep, stop, hold, coinciding with Fr. mirer, L. miror, the primary sense of which is precisely the same as in the Armoric. See Admirable and Miracle. A mayor, then, was originally an overseer, and among country gentlemen, a steward, a kind of domestic bailif; rendered in the writing of the middle ages, villicus. See Spelman ad voc. The derivation of the word from L. major, is undoubtedly an error.]

The chief magistrate of a city, who, in London and York, is called lord mayor. The mayor of a city, in America, is the chief judge of the city court, and is assisted, in some cases at least, by two or more aldermen. To the lord mayor of London belong several courts of judicature, as the hustings, court of requests, and court of common council.