facts of the autumn season

Facts of the Autumn Season

“Animals gather food in autumn in preparation for the coming winter, and those with fur often grow thicker coats.”

http://www.britannica.com/science/autumn-season

“Fifteen hundred years ago, the Anglo-Saxons marked the passage of time with just one season: winter, a concept considered equivalent to hardship or adversity that

metaphorically represented the year in its entirety.”

http://www.livescience.com/34260-fall-autumn-season-names.html

“’Autumn,’ a Latin word, first appears in English in the late 14th century, and gradually gained on ‘harvest.’” 

http://www.livescience.com/34260-fall-autumn-season-names.html

“In the 17th century, ‘fall’ came into use, almost certainly as a poetic complement to ‘spring,’ and it competed with the other terms.”

http://www.livescience.com/34260-fall-autumn-season-names.html

“Finally, in the 18th century, ‘harvest’ had lost its seasonal meaning altogether, and ‘fall’ and ‘autumn’ emerged as the two accepted names for the third season.”

http://www.livescience.com/34260-fall-autumn-season-names.html

“But by the 19th century, ‘fall’ had become an ‘Americanism’: a word primarily used in the United States and one that was frowned upon by British lexicographers.”

http://www.livescience.com/34260-fall-autumn-season-names.html

“The persistence of two terms for the third season in the United States, while somewhat of a mystery, may have something to do with the spread of English to the American continent at the very epoch when ‘fall’ began jockeying for position with ‘autumn’: the 17th century.”

http://www.livescience.com/34260-fall-autumn-season-names.html

“The continued acceptance of ‘autumn’ in the United States may reflect the influence, or at least the proximity, of English culture and literature.”

http://www.livescience.com/34260-fall-autumn-season-names.html