the.com/fall of the leaf
Autumn's original English name, before Americans turned it into a noun and left.
means An old English way of saying 'autumn' — the season named for the simple fact that leaves come down.
from Straightforward compound phrase from Old/Middle English, literally describing the leaves falling — paired in old usage with 'spring of the leaf' for the opposite season. 'Fall' as a standalone name for autumn grew out of this fuller phrase around the 16th-17th centuries, and settlers carried it to America, where it stuck as the everyday word long after Britain largely settled on 'autumn' instead.
- origin era
- 16th century English for autumn
- opposite term
- spring of the leaf meant spring
- word fate
- shortened to fall, kept in America
- britain today
- prefers autumn, ditched its own coinage