As the season comes to an end we enter a unique time of the year which some people call autumn and other people call fall, but have you ever wondered why there are two names for the same season, or if there is even a difference between the two names?
Fall, or autumn is the third season of the year from September 1st to November 30th. According to Merriam-Webster, “The older of the two words is autumn, which first came into English in the 1300s from the Latin word autumnus.” According to dictionary.com, “Recorded use of the word fall as the name of the third season of the year comes from as early as the 1500s.” This means that autumn came first and fall came second. Autumn can be the correct term to use for the season but both are accepted terms.
According to Readers Digest, something that differentiates the two words is that “American English and British English took unofficial stances on the words.” In Britain, people use autumn and in the United States people use fall. It’s not entirely clear why Americans claim the word fall so strongly but people assume it has something to do with the fact that daylight saving time is in the fall and people say “Spring forward fall back” or the fact the leaves fall down in fall.
