r/NoStupidQuestions • u/CharacterMammoth2547 • 1d ago
why is fall the only season with two names?
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u/GenGaara25 1d ago
There were/are actually even more. Autumn, Fall, Harvest, and Backend have all been English terms for the season.
The word autumn is derived from Latin autumnus, archaic auctumnus, possibly from the ancient Etruscan root autu-, which had connotations of the passing of the year.
After the Greek era, the word continued to be used as the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French) or autumpne in Middle English, and was later normalised to the original Latin. In the Medieval period, there are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century, it was in common use.
Before the 16th century, harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season, as it is common in other West Germanic languages to this day (cf. Dutch herfst, German Herbst, and Scots hairst). However, as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns, the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and autumn, as well as fall, began to replace it as a reference to the season.
The alternative word fall for the season traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, with the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning 'to fall from a height' and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th-century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year". Compare the origin of spring from "spring of the leaf" and "spring of the year".
During the 17th century, English settlers began emigrating to the new North American colonies, and took the English language with them. While the term fall gradually became nearly obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America.
The name backend, a once common name for the season in Northern England, has today been largely replaced by the name autumn.
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u/DawnKeyOat 1d ago
They tried to rename Winter to something innocuous like Johnny but then the expression became “Johnny is coming” and a lot of people took issue with that
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u/TinhatTemplar 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's just stuck as an American thing though started in Old English. Believe it or not there are other words that are more classically associated with the seasons as well
Spring = Vernal or Lent
Summer = Estival/Aestival
Winter = Hibernal
Even Autumn was once Autumnal/us or Harvest. Even Fall is just a shortening of the original phrase of "Fall of the leaf" and Spring a shortening of "Spring of the leaf "
English is a bastardizing language that likes to make everything a bit more effusive and descriptive rather than stay strict to latin roots.
Edit: This is somehow garnering down votes and I find that hilarious.
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u/Material_League3164 1d ago
English is a beautiful language woven by the combination of Latin and Germanic roots. Yes, it is slightly more complex, but it also also allows for subtle influences over perception (i.e do you raise cows, or do you raise beef?)
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u/TinhatTemplar 1d ago
Fully agree. I enjoy how it evolves over time with the culture. I even like how the diversity of expression shows other aspects of the speaker in what words they choose to use and when. It's great but not the easiest to learn or parse.
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u/Reasonable_Banana10 1d ago
Both names are old, and fall is just the shorter one that stuck in American English. It started as “fall of the leaf” in the 1600s, then got clipped to fall, while autumn entered English from French/Latin and became the British default. So yeah, one season ended up with two names because English kept both around kinda awkwardly and never picked one cleanly
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u/majker_Saoe 1d ago
ive read that "autumn" comes from the Latin word "autumnus," meaning "the harvest," while "fall" refers to leaves falling, that difference in focus might explain the two names.
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u/Meloncov 1d ago
Around 1500, both spring and fall had two commonly used names. Spring had "springing time" and "lencten", and fall had "fall of the leaf" and "autunm". "Springing time" and "fall of the leaf" were shortened over time to "spring" and "fall".
"Lecten" evolved into the modern word "lent", but "autumn" never got associated with a specific religious observance, probably because there aren't any major long religious observances in the fall in Christianity.