国旗下演讲丨英语语法分享

Why Americans Refer to Autumn as “Fall”

In Great Britain, the third season of the year is known exclusively as autumn. However, across the Atlantic, Americans use both fall and autumn interchangeably, making it the only season in the English language with two widely accepted names. But why does this season have such a linguistic duality?

According to Dictionary.com, fall isn’t a modern nickname that replaced autumn—the terms actually emerged around the same historical period. To understand their origins, we need to look even further back.

Before either word entered common usage, the season between summer and winter was called harvest (from the Old English hærfest), a Germanic term meaning “picking” or “reaping.” This reflected the critical act of gathering crops before winter.

By the 1500s, English speakers began using poetic phrases like “fall of the leaf” and “spring of the leaf” to describe the transitions between warm and cold months. These were eventually shortened to fall and spring. While spring endured in Britain, fall gradually faded from use there.

In the 1600s, the French-derived term autumn (from autompne, rooted in Latin autumnus) became standard in Britain. Meanwhile, early British colonists carried both fall and autumn to North America. Over time, autumn fell out of favor in Britain, but fall persisted in the American lexicon, cementing itself by the time of U.S. independence.

Today, the coexistence of fall and autumn in American English reflects a fascinating linguistic split. While Britain streamlined to autumn, the U.S. retained fall—a relic of 16th-century English that evolved into a uniquely American quirk.

为何美国人将秋天称为"Fall"

在英国，一年中的第三个季节被统一称为"autumn"。然而在大西洋彼岸，美国人却同时使用"fall"和"autumn"来指代这个季节，使其成为英语中唯一拥有两个通用名称的季节。这种语言上的二元性从何而来？

据词典网站Dictionary.com解释，"fall"并非取代"autumn"的现代简称——这两个词汇实际上诞生于同一历史时期。要追溯它们的起源，我们需要回到更久远的年代。

在两者流行之前，夏冬之间的季节被称为"harvest"（源自古英语"hærfest"），这个日耳曼语词汇意为"采摘"或"收割"，反映了寒冬来临前抢收作物的重要农事。

16世纪时，英语使用者开始用"叶落之时"（fall of the leaf）和"叶生之时"（spring of the leaf）等诗意说法描述冷暖季节的交替。这些短语后来简化为"fall"和"spring"。虽然"spring"在英国得以保留，但"fall"的使用却日渐式微。

17世纪，源自法语的"autumn"（由法语autompne演变而来，词根可追溯至拉丁语autumnus）成为英国标准用语。与此同时，早期英国殖民者将"fall"和"autumn"一同带往北美。随着时间推移，"autumn"在英国逐渐失宠，但"fall"却在美式英语中顽强存续，并在美国独立战争时期完成本土化进程。

如今"fall"与"autumn"在美式英语中的共存，折射出一次迷人的语言分化。当英国选择精简为单一称谓时，美国却保留了这份源自16世纪英语的历史遗存，最终演变为独具特色的美式语言印记。