Autumn or Fall?

The debate this morning was whether we were in the midst of Autumn or Fall. We felt that Autumn was an English word and Fall was American - but was this the case? With our learned friend, Harvest, having passed on to that great Duckpond in the sky and her dear little understudy, Josie, also having flown up to dibble in the Eternal Reedbeds, we turned to Pauly Turkey. Pauly had (reluctantly at first) become our Number One Librarian, and was now fiercely protective about her new role.

"The older of the two words is autumn, which first came into English in the 1300s from the Latin word autumnus. It comes from the 
 ancient Etruscan root autu- and has within it connotations of the passing of the year," she announced whilst peering closely at us to see if we were paying attention.

Are you listening?!

We are! We are!

​"After the Roman era, the word continued to be used as the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French) or autumpne in Middle English. Both autumn and fall were born in Britain, and both emigrated to America. But autumn was, by far, the more popular term for quite a long time." Pauly stopped to adjust her pince-nez.
​"Fall derives from an Old English verb, but it wasn’t used as a noun to designate the season until the 16th century. This use most likely developed from the Middle English expression “fall of the leaf.” So what did Old English speakers call the season? --- Harvest."
​We like that a lot. 

A veritable harvest of apples on the footpath for Mysty

With lots more still to drop

A carpet of yellow ash leaves

And looking up there - many more to fall