In the U.S., the end of September brings sweater weather, pumpkin spice treats, falling leaves and more. What should we call this season? Is the proper name autumn or is it fall after all?
According to Merriam-Webster, while both terms are technically accurate, fall is favored in America and autumn is preferred in the U.K., where both terms originated.
Autumn came first as a name for the season between summer and winter, said the dictionary publisher. It cropped up in the 1300s and has roots in the Latin word autumnus, which in turn has an unknown origin. After it popped up, “autumn” became a popular word, replacing the former word “harvest” which had, up until then, been used to describe both the season and the act of harvesting crops.
After a 300-year run, “autumn” started losing its monopoly on the harvest season thanks to poetry, according to Merriam-Webster. When poets began using the phrase “the fall of the leaves” in the 1600s, the word “fall” became associated with the season as well. At that time, England’s empire was beginning to expand to the Americas, and the words “autumn” and “fall” made their way across the Atlantic Ocean to British colonies.
“To put it more pretentiously, there was always something transient, unstable, mysterious, emotionally undefined about autumn and fall, unlike the other seasons which are so well defined,” said Tony Thorne, lexicographer at King's College London, according to USA Today. “Maybe that's why people could not easily decide on one permanent name throughout our history.”
However, it took a while for fall to gain official status.
It wasn't entered into a dictionary until 1755, when Samuel Johnson first entered it in his Dictionary of the English Language shortly before the start of the American Revolution.
By 1816, the U.S. had won its independence from England and Americans were already showing a preference for fall over autumn, according to early American lexicographer John Pickering. He said that a friend had pointed out “autumn is universally called fall,” in North America.
It’s not clear why fall became a bigger hit in the U.S., though some think it might have been one small way for Americans to create their new identity, apart from England.
“Some think that it sounds more simple and honest and rustic, unlike the more formal ‘autumn’, some think that independent Americans wanted to consciously distance themselves from Colonial British ways of speaking,” Thorne said.
According to Writing Explained, autumn is considered a more formal way to refer to the season than fall and continues to be more popular in England.
“British readers will probably raise an eyebrow if you use fall whereas American readers wouldn’t bat an eye if you used either word,” said the site.
“In America at least, people might look at you strangely if you routinely used autumn instead of fall in your daily conversation. In writing, however, no one will take any notice,” it added.
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