Maiden Assize. So called when there are no charges for the jury, which in the event of conviction merit capital punishment or the death sentence. On such an occasion the sheriffs present a pair of white gloves to the judges as the emblems of innocence.
Maiden Lane. Anciently skirting the garden of the Convent. This thoroughfare had at its western corner a statue of “Our Lady” let into the wall.
Maid Marian. So far from having any connection with Robin Hood and his merry men in Sherwood Forest, this term is derived from the “Morris Dance,” in which five men and a boy took part. On account of his antics and the ill-fitting morione, or helmet, that this boy wore, he came to be styled as the “Mad Morion,” of which Maid Marian was an easy corruption.
Maid of Orleans. Joan of Arc, who led her countrymen against the English, and effected the capture of the city of Orleans, 29th April 1429.
Maid of Saragossa. Augustina Zaragossa, who distinguished herself in the heroic[heroic] defence of the city of Saragossa during its eight months’ siege by the French in 1808-9.
Maidstone. From the Anglo-Saxon Medwægeston, the town on the Medwæge, or Medway, which river runs through the middle of the county of Kent.
Mail. The American term for “post”--i.e. a letter. This word is, of course, derived from the mail bag in which letters are transmitted.
Mail Stage. The American form of “Stage-coach.”
Maine. The name given to the French settlement in the New World after the city so called in the Mother Country. Maine, from the Celtic man, expresses a district or region.
Majorca. Expresses the Latin for Greater, relative to the “Balearic Islands.”