Autumn is the season between summer and winter, when temperatures cool and many trees lose their leaves. In American English, it is often called fall.
From Old French “autompne,” from Latin “autumnus,” of uncertain origin, possibly linked to words for “drying” or “ripening.” In English it gradually replaced the older term “harvest” as a season name.
The American word “fall” simply came from “fall of the leaf,” a poetic phrase that stuck. So two very different-sounding words, autumn and fall, point to the same moment: the year letting go.
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