Do you know that the season between summer and winter can be used in English with two words? ‘Fall’ and ‘autumn’. Have you ever wondered what is the difference between ‘Autumn and ‘Fall’? Who will choose what?
Generally, the word ‘fall’ is used mostly in American English, while the word ‘autumn’ is used in British English. Grammatically, both are used in expressions the same way: “leaves fall in autumn” or “leaves fall in fall”.
Some examples:
I’m planning to visit my friends next autumn.
We are going to the USA this fall.
Historical Background
Historically, autumn is an older word. It came to English about 700 years ago - from the Latin word autumnus. Before that, the autumn season was called harvest, and it was inconvenient. That is why autumn began to spread very quickly.
Over time, British poets began to call autumn the combination of the fall of leaves (“fall of leaves”), which eventually reduced to a simple fall by the 16th century. That is, the word fall in the meaning of "autumn" is a couple of hundred years younger. And it was first added to the dictionary even later - in 1755.
When England began to actively seize new lands and establish its colonies, both words also began to spread around the world. But then the difference between the languages began to increase: the Americans did not have much contact with the British, and in general they strove for a national identity. All this led to the fact that in North America they began to use the word fall more often, and in England - autumn.
Still, the British also do not disdain the word fall. But, as a rule, more often they use it in combination with certain words - for example, "spring and fall”. British poet Gerard Hopkins has a poem of the same name of 1880 (https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/hopkins/section4/).
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