fall

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /fɔːl/, US /fɔːl/, /fɑːl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fallen, inherited from Old English feallan (“to drop from a height; to fail, decay, die”),^[2][3][4] past tense feoll,^[2] from Proto-Germanic *fallaną.^[2] Its cognates include Old Frisian falla, Old Saxon fallan, Dutch vallen, German fallen and Old Norse falla; it is absent in Gothic.^[2][3][5] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *pol- (“to fall”),^[2] and Merriam-Webster and Klein compare Lithuanian pulti (“to fall”) and Armenian pʻul “downfall”.^[6][7] The noun is partly from the verb and partly from Old Norse fall (“fall, death in battle, sin, downfall”).^[5][8] The causative of the same verb is fell.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To drop from a height: Old English feallan, before 900, in King Alfred's works,^[3] or about 890.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that in Old English fall was used literally and befall figuratively.^[10] “To come suddenly to the ground” is late Old English.^[2] The noun, a falling, is from about 1200,^[2][9] and the fall from moral elevation, especially of Adam and Eve, from the early 13th century.^[2][9] Of empires and governments it is from about 1200, of the face from the late 14th century, and “to die in battle”, of prices, and of sloping land, from the 1570s.^[2] The season of autumn, fall, short for fall of the leaf (1540s), is by the 1660s; now American, it was formerly common in England, where the older name was harvest.^[2] A waterfall is from the 1570s.^[2] Fall in love is from the 1520s, fall out, “to quarrel”, from the 1560s, fall through from 1781 and fall for from 1903.^[2] Fall guy is by 1906.^[2]

Timeline

• before 900 – Old English feallan.^[3]
• c. 1200 – noun, a falling; of empires.^[2]
• early 13th century – the Fall of man.^[2]
• 1520s – fall in love.^[2]
• 1540s – fall of the leaf.^[2]
• 1570s – to die in battle; a waterfall.^[2]
• 1660s – fall, autumn.^[2]
• 1781 – fall through.^[2]
• 1903 – fall for.^[2]
• 1906 – fall guy.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To drop or come down freely by the force of gravity.
2. To drop to a lower or less upright position; to collapse.
3. To be wounded or killed in battle; to be overthrown or captured.
4. To decrease, as in amount or value.
5. To pass into a state: fall asleep, fall ill.
6. To occur at a specified time or place: Easter falls early.

Noun

1. An act of falling; a drop or decline.
2. (chiefly US) Autumn.
3. (often falls) A waterfall.
4. A loss of power or innocence, and the Fall, the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
5. An amount that has fallen: a fall of snow.

Related words

• fell
• befall
• pitfall
• waterfall
• downfall
• fallen

Usage notes

Old English also had a noun fealle, “a trap”, from the verb, which survives in dialect and probably in pitfall.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press