Autumn vs Fall
Does autumn and fall mean the same thing? Why are there two words for the same season? (The answer is very patriotic.) And when is fall?
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Yes, autumn and fall mean exactly the same thing – but there’s an important patriotic reason for the two words.
Autumn and fall are both names for the same season. Believe it or not, the difference is due to the American Independence. Even though both words were coined in Britain, since the 1800s Americans use the word “fall”, and countries who speak British English use the word “autumn”.
Did you know? Autumn is the only season that has more than one commonly used term.
And just to keep you in the know, the words “autumn” and “fall” don’t have to be capitalized. They are considered common nouns, and not a name like a proper noun.
Guess what? There was another word used even before “autumn”!
Not to confuse things further, but the earliest English word for the season was “harvest”. As you can imagine, that was confusing. It was only within context that people could tell if you were referring to the harvest season or actually harvesting. Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” referred to the season as “hervest.”
According to Dictionary.com, in the 1600s the word “autumn” started showing up in poetry and literature, such as the works of Shakespeare, probably derived from the Latin autumnus.
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 104
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn’d
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn’d,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
The term “fall” makes most sense.
Today, “autumn” still conjures ideas of elegance and poetry, and “fall” feels more down-to-earth and practical.
- In the 1500s, the word fall began to be used instead of harvest due to “the fall of the leaf” in the season, as opposed to the “spring of the leaf” in, well, spring. (In Britain fall was replaced by autumn in the 1600s. It had a resurgence in America in the 1800s.)
- The Daylight Savings Time saying is “spring forward, fall back”. Makes sense.
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
Albert Camus, French philosopher, author, and recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature (1913-1960)
When is fall? Is it the same time as the Autumnal Equinox?
According to the National Weather Service, “There are only two times of the year when the Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a nearly equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes. These events are referred to as Equinoxes.”
The autumnal equinox (fall season) happens sometime between September 21 – 24, depending on when the sun is directly overhead at noon due to the sun crossing the celestial equator (the extension of the earth’s equator into space.)
The dates vary because the calendar is based on 365 days a year, and it takes the earth 365 1/4 days to orbit around the sun.
Dates for the First Day of Fall 2024-2030
Autumnal Equinox Dates in the Northern Hemisphere
| 2024 | Sunday, September 22nd |
| 2025 | Monday, September 22nd |
| 2026 | Tuesday, September 22nd |
| 2027 | Thursday, September 23rd |
| 2028 | Friday, September 22nd |
| 2029 | Saturday, September 22nd |
| 2030 | Sunday, September 22nd |
******Put the monthly planner for september here with info on september equinox.
Credit for equinox video: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
In a nutshell:
“Autumn”, “fall”, and even “harvest” are words for the same season that happens during the Autumnal Equinox, beginning sometime between September 21-24, depending on which day that year the sun is directly overhead at noon.
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