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You are here: Home / Odds / What Does SOS Stand For?

What Does SOS Stand For?

May 6, 2020 by Karen Hill

Do you think that SOS, the distress signal used on ships all over the world, stands for “Save Our Ship”?

Actually, it doesn’t stand for anything. In the kind of telegraph code used to transmit messages to and from ships, the letter S is three dots, and the letter 0 is three dashes. So in 1908, SOS was chosen as the distress signal because it is easy to send and recognize.

The distress signal for ship radios is “Mayday.” This word probably came from a French phrase, m’aidez, which is pronounced something like mayday and means “help me.”

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  • What do the Distress Letters SOS Stand For and How did the International Distress Signal Originate?
  • What Does the Word “Mayday” Mean in French and Where Did the International Distress Signal Come From?
  • What can you do to protect yourself from outbreaks of disease on a Cruise Ship?
  • Who Were the First Explorers of Ancient Civilization?
  • How did engineers lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable and When?

Filed Under: Odds

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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