10/5/2023 0 Comments Autumn vs fall uk![]() Autumn gained the upper hand in Britain to the extent that fall was eventually considered archaic.īut it is, at least, familiar to Brits today. Fall became the more common word in North America. In the 17 th century, English-speaking emigrants took both words with them to the New World. Arrival of autumnīy the 16 th century, autumn had been ‘borrowed’ from the French automne (itself derived from the Latin autumnus). These were shortened to the one-word form by the 17 th century, which was long before the development of AmE. Spring and fall initially appeared around the 16 th century as spring of the leaf and fall of the leaf (both the words spring and fall being Germanic in origin ). This eventually became relegated to a mere agricultural term. First it was harvest…Ī fascinating article on Slate reveals that back in the 12 th and 13 th centuries spring was called lent or lenten. The “third season of the year” was called harvest, as in “a time of reaping”. What I discovered was that although fall is now widely used in the U.S., the term is neither exclusively American nor American in origin. So now that autumn has officially begun, I thought I’d do a bit of delving. Yet we can’t seem to agree what to call this time of the year. We use w inter, spring and summer on both sides of the pond. If you'd like to learn to differentiate more words like these, visit our Confusing Words blog.One of the many differences between British English and American English that’s always intrigued me is autumn vs. Both terms are perfectly acceptable and grammatically correct in both countries.'Autumn' is more common in the UK and 'fall' in the US.'Autumn' and 'fall' are two words used to refer to the same season.That concludes today's article on the difference between 'autumn' and 'fall.' Here's what I hope you take away from this: They've released their new fall/winter catalog. It was a cool autumn afternoon, and the leaves crunched beneath my feet as I wandered through the park. The fall rains can get pretty heavy around here. Many animals start to prepare for hibernation in autumn. I prefer to go on vacation in the summer than in the fall. I'll use them interchangeably throughout the sentences since they have the same meaning. We'll take a look at some examples of the words' autumn' and 'fall' in sentences, so you can get an idea of how they are used in context. How do you pronounce these two words? Well, the International Phonetic Alphabet says they should be pronounced as such:Īnd when you say them out loud, they'll sound something like this: Pronunciation: How to Pronounce 'Autumn' and 'Fall' You'll need to defer the word's intended meaning from the context. There are more, but I won't go into them here because they are unrelated to the meaning that identifies seasons, but I wanted to mention a few to show you that they do exist and are distinct from the seasons. I'll spend my autumn years gardening and taking it easy. Interestingly, you can also use 'autumn' in an idiomatic sense to refer to a period of maturity or the stage of life that comes in later years. 'Autumn' is also sometimes used as a person's name, in which case it would be a proper noun. Perhaps the most well-known one for 'fall' is the verb that describes one's descent to the ground after they trip over, for example. It's worth noting that the words' fall' and 'autumn' do have other meanings. You might get an odd look or a teasing remark, but nobody can say you're incorrect. But you can definitely still use 'autumn' in the US and 'fall' in the UK. So which of the two should you use between 'autumn' and 'fall'? Well, it's hard to argue that the former is the most popular term of the two in British English-speaking countries and that the latter is preferred in American English. In 1755, the term was officialized when Samuel Johnson entered it in his "Dictionary of the English Language." It wasn't long until that phrase was simply shortened to 'fall.' This phrase was especially popularized in poetry. But over time, people began to use the phrase "the fall of the leaves" to refer to the season where, as you know, leaves fall from the trees. ![]() The original word was 'autumn,' which was derived from the Latin autumnus, which is of unknown origin. 'Autumn' and 'fall' are both nouns that refer to the season of the year that comes after summer and before winter.Īll English-speaking countries agree on the term for the other three seasons - winter, spring, and summer - so why not autumn/fall? Concluding Thoughts What's the Difference Between 'Autumn' vs 'Fall?'
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