Autumn, fall … or harvest?
Did you know that fall was once referred to simply as “harvest” to reflect the time when farmers gathered their crops for winter storage? In the early 1600s as more people started moving into cities, the word harvest fell out of use and city dwellers used the phrase “fall of the leaf” to refer to the third season of the year. The word fall comes from the Old English word “feallan” which means “to fall or to die.” Over time, the phrase was shortened to fall. No one really knows where the word autumn comes from. It was used as far back as the 1300s (by Chaucer), and Shakespeare often used the word. Today, North Americans tend to use the word fall, while the British use autumn almost exclusively.
