As an American, I learned to call the season between summer and winter “fall.” Later, when I discovered the term “Autumn,” I thought it sounded so much more romantic and had a historical flair that has always appealed to me. However, both are modern terms.

Anciently, the season had no name at all. It was merely a transition between summer and winter. Later, people starting calling that time of year simply “harvest,” a name that lasted for centuries.

In the 14th Century, a Latin word, “Fall” cropped up and was used interchangeably with Autumn but gradually became more widely used. Eventually, people took sides.  In England, Autumn won out as the preferred term, but Americans adopted Fall. According to Live Science: fall was used as a poetic complement to “spring,” and it competed with the other terms…According to Slate, British lexicographers begrudgingly admit that the United States got the better end of the stick. In “The King’s English” (1908), H.W. Fowler wrote, “Fall is better on the merits than autumn, in every way: it is short, Saxon (like the other three season names), picturesque; it reveals its derivation to everyone who uses it, not to the scholar only, like autumn.”

So, autumn is British and scholarly. Fall is Saxon and American, and it fits with the other seasons. Whatever you choose to call it, I  hope yours is lovely.