autumn

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɔːtəm/ (UK); /ˈɔtəm/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English autumpne, borrowed from Old French autompne and later directly borrowed from Latin autumnus, also auctumnus,^[2][3][4][5] a word of unknown origin, perhaps Etruscan.^[3][2] Etymonline mentions Tucker's suggestion of a root meaning “drying-up season” and notes de Vaan's view that, since no PIE word for autumn can be reconstructed, a foreign origin is conceivable.^[3] The modern spelling follows the Latin from the 16th century.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The season between summer and winter: about 1374 in the OED,^[6] about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius, in Barnhart.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Hoad notes the word was rare before the 16th century.^[4] Harvest was the usual English name for the season until autumn displaced it in the 16th century,^[3][7] and Americans use fall, first recorded in Britain in 1555 for the season when leaves fall.^[7] Tyndale wrote authum in 1526, apparently going back to the Latin, and Shakespeare has autumne in The Taming of the Shrew (1596).^[2] The figurative sense, a season of maturity or of beginning decline, is from 1624.^[6] Autumnal is from 1574.^[2] Etymonline notes that the Indo-European languages have no common word for autumn; many names mean end of summer or harvest.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – the season.^[6]
• 1526 – authum, in Tyndale.^[2]
• 16th century – displaces harvest as the name of the season.^[3][7]
• 1574 – autumnal.^[2]
• 1624 – a season of maturity or decline.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The season between summer and winter, from September to November in the northern hemisphere; fall.
2. A period of maturity verging on decline: the autumn of his life.

Word family

• autumnal
• autumnally

Related words

• autumnal equinox
• fall
• harvest

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press