autumn English · revision 6712

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1374|origins=la autumnus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈɔːtəm/ ''(UK)''; /ˈɔtəm/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English autumpne, [[bor|fro|autompne]] and later directly [[bor|la|autumnus]], also auctumnus,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986)^(NODE 1998) a word of unknown origin, perhaps Etruscan.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) 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.^(Etymonline) The modern spelling follows the Latin from the 16th century.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The season between summer and winter: about 1374 in the OED,^(OED 1989) about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius, in Barnhart.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Hoad notes the word was rare before the 16th century.^(Hoad 1986) [[harvest|alt=Harvest]] was the usual English name for the season until autumn displaced it in the 16th century,^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021) and Americans use [[fall]], first recorded in Britain in 1555 for the season when leaves fall.^(Cresswell 2021) Tyndale wrote authum in 1526, apparently going back to the Latin, and Shakespeare has autumne in ''The Taming of the Shrew'' (1596).^(Barnhart 1988) The figurative sense, a season of maturity or of beginning decline, is from 1624.^(OED 1989) [[autumnal|alt=Autumnal]] is from 1574.^(Barnhart 1988) Etymonline notes that the Indo-European languages have no common word for autumn; many names mean ''end of summer'' or ''harvest''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1374 – the season.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1526 – authum, in Tyndale.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 16th century – displaces harvest as the name of the season.^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021)

+ * 1574 – autumnal.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1624 – a season of maturity or decline.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The season between [[summer]] and [[winter]], from September to November in the northern hemisphere; [[fall]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A period of maturity verging on decline: ''the autumn of his life''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[autumnal]]

+ * [[autumnally]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[autumnal equinox]]

+ * [[fall]]

+ * [[harvest]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}