Do you prefer ‘fall’ or ‘autumn?’

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’m going to be the contrary Brit - I prefer “fall” and wish we used it. (We don’t, so I use autumn - I’m not that contrary).

Reasons are - 1) it’s needlessly latinate - if our other seasons were Vern, Estus and Hiver that would be fine but they’re not so why borrow from Latin for this one? 2) It foregrounds the relationship between time of year and the natural environment. 3) Relatedly, it pairs nicely with spring, giving some symmetry. 4) Spring forward, autumn back is a terrible mnemonic.

In sum, “autumn” feels contrived and detached from reality, an imposition from the Latin-schooled elite while “fall” feels like the natural language of people talking about what they see around them.

22

For me, it varies with the level of formality. Fall is more informal to my ear than autumn.

I also will vary them based on sound. Autumn has a more “poetic” sound to it, to me.

23

I have the feeling that this is not completely correct and that autum is not derived directly from Latin, but that it is more akin to the French - Norman dichotomy shown in mutton/lamb, pork/pig, beef/cow, poultry/chicken and so on/etc. So the USA prefers fall? It figures.

24

Quite possibly - I’ve seen reference to Chaucer importing it. Either way, it jars in relation to the other seasons and just feels a bit contrived.

25

Wow, you’ve thought about this a LOT

26

It’s weird, I think ‘autumn’ sounds nicer, but I never actually use it and find it odd when people do. I guess instinctively I feel it’s more of a literary word than a spoken word.

27

:laughing:

Thanks for saying “a lot” instead of “too much”!

28

Vernal and autumnal are borealist. I prefer northward and southward equinoxes, myself.

And we say autumn in South Africa (when we don’t say herfs, ekwindla, etc) , fall is a very clear Americanism.

Plus “autumn” makes me think of Verlaine…“fall” just makes me think of raking leaves, yuck.

29

Well, when it comes to modern English, a huge portion of our routine vocabulary is needlessly Latinate. Unless you’re an expert, you would probably have to do a modicum of research to expunge all the Latinate influences in this message and recast it with words of purely Germanic origin.

30

Fall. It just falls of the tongue easier.

31

Either will do.

32

Over 60% of the english language has latin or greek roots. Let’s just leave it as it is, shall we?

33

I mean, I’m not on a mission here. It would be mad to try to expunge latinate and/or greek words from English. But I like “fall”.

34

You’ll be part of a vibrant community of weirdos if you did want to do that.

35

There is always this:

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36

I love the word autumnal, so I chose autumn.

37

I voted “Autumn” but would probably say “Fall” in spoken conversation because I don’t have the slightest idea on how to pronounce “Autumn”.

38

My gf has a friend named Autumn. When referring to her, i call her “Otto”.

39

I guess is like “Otto” but with a final “M” sound? so “Ottom”? man I love English but the spelling and pronunciation parts drive me crazy.

40

It’s context dependent. I can’t actually tell you what the necessary context for each is, but I know it when I see it. Basically, one or the other will seem more “correct” to me, depending on the scenario.