Actually, ‘fall’ has its origins as an Anglo-Saxon word, and was popularized for use to denote the season around the 16th century from the poetic term ‘the fall of leaf.’ In the language that would develop after 1066, words that were coded as being common or lowly generally had Anglo-Saxon roots while the ‘educated’ words of the elite had French and Latin roots. This is why, even in modern English, we use ‘cow,’ which has an Anglo-Saxon origin, for the animal out in the field and ‘beef,’ which has a French origin, for the food to be consumed. The poor handle the animal while the rich eat the meat, and that is reflected in the language. The language of the conquerors was elevated while the language of the conquered was made base and common. If ‘autumn’ sounds smarter than ‘fall,’ that is only the linguistic snobbery of history talking.
^ I WAS ABOUT TO FREAKING SAY.
THANK YOU.
Bagh I do not have time for second grade linguists ignoring the fact that language and the representation of history is so often about power. We call it fall because of hegemonic structures that were in place, not because America so stupid we no use big words right guys?
Pretty proud of myself for not making a cunning linguist joke for almost all of this.