Why do Americans call Autumn "The Fall?"?

Question

I've always been curious about this. Why is it Americans use "The Fall" or "Fall" to represent Autumn season? I know its probably because the leaves fall from the trees, but why don't they just call it Autumn like we do in the UK? Has it got something to do with American Independance?

Answer 1

Probably for the same reason they refer to a game played predominantly with hands, football.
I suspect it has something to do with the general feeling of inadequacy born out of there being related to the outcasts of Europe.
They cant speak the mother tongue properly because it represents the land they were slung out of, so like recalcitrant children they have got to change it and then pretend its better.
A nation that went from childhood to adulthood without maturity.
PS You will find a trunk on an elephant and the letter u in colour.

Answer 2

Fall is an alternative English word for the season of Autumn. In use now only in North American English, the word traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, 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 only came to denote the season in the 16th century, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year".

Autumn comes from the Old French autompne, and ultimately from the Latin autumnus. There are rare examples of its use as early as the 14th century, but it became common only in the 16th, around the same time as Fall, when the two words appear to have been used interchangebly.

During the 17th century immigration to the English colonies in North America was at its peak and the new settlers took their language with them. While the term Fall gradually obsolesced in Britain, it became the preferred term in North America, at least in conversation.

Before the 16th century Harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season. However as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns (especially those who could read and write, the only people whose use of language we now know), the word became to refer to the actual activity of reaping, rather than the time of year, and Fall and Autumn began to replace it.

Answer 3

It is because of the leaves falling. But we call it Autumn too sometimes. Autumn is a more formal way of saying Fall. This is a really good question though.

Answer 4

The autumn leeeeeeeeaves....
Drift by my windoooooooowwww...
The autumn leeeeeeeaves...
Of red and goooooooooooooooooooold ...

The summer daaaaaaaaaaaayyys...
Have come and gooooooooooooone....
And soon I'll siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing ....
A wiiiiinter soooooooooooooooooooong...

But I'll miss you most of aaaaaaaaaaaaall, my daaaaaarling....
When aaaaauuuuutumn leeeeeeeeeeeaves...
Staaaaaaaaaart ...
To faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall.

(Whaddaya think? Is "American Idol" ready for me?)

Answer 5

The "Fall" is a time when it's not too hot or too cold. The leaves began to fall, its a time of change, like the chage from winter to spring, and then summer. In America,the people in every state have a different way of talking. I'm from the Grand ole South I guess you can tell.

Answer 6

We call it Fall because of James Taylor.."winter spring summer and autumn" just doesn't have the same ring to it

Answer 7

Because the leaves "fall" from the trees in the Autumn.

Answer 8

It's just that our English is different than UK English.

I would also guess that it's because of the leaves "fall" from the tree.

It's a case of Periphery English (US English) vs. Heartland or Core English (UK)

The periphery is often more conservative in language, and language often changes faster at the core. (i.e. Fall, Elevator, Apartment in the U.S. are older versions of Autumn, Lift, and Flat in the UK)...i.e. Language changes more rapidly at the core (in the UK)

Answer 9

Probably purely as you say because the leaves fall from the trees at that time. There are other examples in the American language similar to this but I can't think of one right now.

Why spell 'colour' 'color'? Probably has to do with the backwards mega-religious original founders who couldn't spell properly and such!

Answer 10

We sometimes call it Autumn. It's the time of year when you rake up a large pile of leaves and 'fall back in them'.

It's a good way to remember how to reset your clock; 'Spring= ahead' and 'Fall=back'.

Then there is the 'fall' of the British empire, could have something to do with that.

Answer 11

Because, right before Winter, the Leaves all FALL from the trees!