While both British and Americans speak English as their native language, it is fair to say that often the languages are worlds apart. Soccer vs football, chips vs fries, jelly vs jello, trainers vs sneakers, etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. Sometimes the differences make sense and other times it just leaves us scratching our heads. Football makes a lot of sense as you kick a ball with your foot but the word soccer doesn’t really mean anything. What about autumn and fall?
Fall again clearly makes sense, the leaves fall during this time of year so people call it Fall. What about autumn? A word that at first glance doesn’t have any meaning but let’s look a little deeper.
The word autumn actually comes from the Latin term autumnus. This word is linked to Proto-Indo European phrases that mean to cool off and to dry out. These are things that happen during that time of year so the word does make sense too.
Prior to the word Autumn becoming popular in the UK people would call this time of year Harvest. This got confusing quickly as harvest would actually happen at different times of the year depending on weather patterns. This made autumn grow in popularity as a clear division between summer and winter without any confusion or dispute.
The word fall grew in popularity in both the UK and the USA at a time when poetic writing was growing in popularity. The falling of leaves was a more powerful image than the word autumn and so many adopted it. It was at this time that the US was growing as a nation. While the UK eventually reverted back to Autumn, the US never did.
This is one of many differences in the lexicon of the UK and US and it can be fascinating to dive into each one. Let us know in the comments what your favorite difference is between the languages and maybe we will dig deep for you in our next article.
