With the passing of time, poets, and disciples of literature became all the more interested in giving names to certain seasons and times of the year. And since romanticism is a famous movement in the literary arena, certain names were also made to sound romantic. One of the famous times of the year is autumn which was called by poets “fall.” Thus, it is through romantic literary pages that “fall” was used for the first time.
But in the United Kingdom, the British people often make use of the word “autumn” to describe a season that often takes place after summer and before winter. In the United States, they call it “fall.” But why do Britons make use of a word that’s far different from its real English name?
Basically, the words or names “autumn” and “fall” were used as English terms to point out the time of the year, the year’s third season that is. However, it was made known that “autumn” is older than “fall.”
When Did the Name Autumn First Appear?
Based on old writings, the name “autumn” was first used in ancient English writing during the 1400s. The name originated from “autumnus,” a Latin word that’s still questionable as to where it really stems from. As time passed by, the use of the word “autumn” became popular. Using this name does not only describe the third season of the year but to describe the time of the year when people go out and “harvest.”
But this has become a disputed issue because the time to harvest varies depending on location and crops. This is for the fact that English people consider summer and winter as the only two major seasons of the year. And since these people only have to focus on the warmest and coldest times of the year, there is no need to make use of a word that describes “harvest.”
To make it appear in a less disputed manner, the word “autumn” was introduced. It’s a less bickering way to tell the transition of times in a year, from summer to winter, so to speak.
The Origin of the Name “Fall”
With the passing of time, poets became more interested in making use of romantic words to describe a particular time of the year. Thus, these poets made use of “fall” instead of autumn to make it sound more romantic. During the 1600s, poets and writers became more amazed by this time of the year and this was the time when “fall of the leaves or leaf” was coined. In conjunction with this term, “spring leaves or leaf” was used as a way to tell the transition of times or seasons of the year. Eventually, the terms were made shorter by using “fall” and “spring” instead.
During those times, the British empire was growing quickly and as a result, the English tongue has become popular and became widespread. One portion of the world which was heavily infected by the use of such words was North America. With the passing of time, the English words that were used in North America and the English words used in the United Kingdom started to divide and grow apart and continued to develop at their own will. Contact between these two areas was seldom and this caused a huge difference in the usage of words in these two continents.
Prior to their growing independence and less contact between the two English-speaking areas, the word “fall” became a more preferred name used by North Americans. As a form of revert, the people of the United Kingdom preferred the use of the word “autumn” instead of “fall.”
