The international radio call for an urgency call (rather than an emergency call) is “pan-pan.”
I seem to remember in my dim dark memory that it originated from the radio call “pancake,” as in an aircraft is about to imitate the action of one. I can’t seem to find a cite for it, so now I’m not so sure.
Can anyone confirm or deny?
According to this site:
…which goes right along with MAYDAY coming from the french “m’aider”, meaning help me.
Merci - that certainly makes a lot of sense.
‘Pancake’ may have been a code word meaning ‘clear to land’
It’s “m’aidez” isn’t it?
(Then again, I always thought “pan” was short for “panic” - fortunately I never had to make either radio call.)
The phrase “pan, pan” is repeated 3 times rather than just the word “pan”.
Pronounced “Pahn-pahn”. 
Not here it’s not.
That’s right, it’s pronounced ‘throat-warbler mangrove’.
Ah, I see you’ve flown around here too.
Sorry. My French is atrocious. But, when I googled it, there were almost as many hits on m’aider mayday as there were for m’aidez mayday. 