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Comment by sofixa | Hacker News Reader

Not to mention that fall is mostly used in American English, while British and most other Englishes (like Australian) use the correct word, autumn.

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If you want to go down the prescriptive path, a more correct word relative to "autumn" is "hærfest". Just like "fall" replaced "autumn", "autumn" replaced "hærfest".

Autumn hasn't been replaced outside of America though. I do appreciate the interesting fact about hærfest, so thanks.

> Autumn hasn't been replaced outside of America though

not sure how is that relevant?

"Autumn" was never replaced with "fall". "Fall" (referring to leaves falling down) and "spring" (referring to leaves springing up) both come from Middle English. The United States was colonized by English speakers who still used both terms.

Meanwhile, "autumn" is a loan word from French. "Autumn" and "fall" were both used in Britain, but "autumn" eventually won out (after the colonization of North America).

It did in the states. Autumn is no longer a loan word (a loan word has little or no changes). The French word is quite different: automne. As You can see, it is missing 2 letters and the pronounciation is quite different.

No, there was not a point in history where Americans all said "autumn" and then switched over to using "fall".

"Fall" (along with its counterpart "spring") was commonly used in Britain when America was colonized. The British later stopped using "fall" (although they did keep "spring") and switched completely over to "autumn". But Americans never made that switch and continue to use both terms just as their British ancestors did.

"Fall" never replaced "autumn". It replaced "harvest" (just as "spring" replaced "lent"). "Autumn" was borrowed from French, and then "fall" and "autumn" existed side by side for hundreds of years in Britain, up until very recently when "autumn" replaced "fall".

"Fall" (referring to leaves falling down) has been in use since Middle English, along with "spring" (referring to leaves springing up).

Why did so many English speakers stop using "fall", a proper English word with a very long history in Britain, and switch to using a French word for it instead?

For that matter, why didn't they do the same for "spring" when it is so closely linked to "fall"? It seems very silly.

Likely because Americans started using it; many words that british claim are the "right way" were originally the way Americans use it currently. "Across the pond" youtube channel does a great word by word history

I appreciate "autumn" for it's lack of ambiguity, but "fall" is easier to say.

In America, Autumn is reserved for the name of daughters of hippies after they've already used Sunshine and Moonbeam. Also, the punchlines aren't as funny, "did you have a nice autumn?" when someone trips.

And who has the authority to declare, what is the correct word?

The French, evidently.

The Académie Française?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acad%C3%A9mie_Fran%C3%A7aise

I'm sorry, but I don't put any faith in the French doing it correctly. Who decided that the French of all people were to be put in charge of anything?

Well, I actually would put them in charge on improving the german train system.

But not in charge of the german, nor english language.

That actually blows my mind of stereotypes. The germans are memed to be very rigid and mechanical while the french are memed to have a pliable relationship with time. So putting the french in charge of the memed concept of trains must run on time is just wrecking everything for me.

The French also held in WWI, and almost held in WWII, because of their rail network.

So trains resonate as a point of pride in a way they might not without historical context.

Ha ha, funny how it's neither fall nor autumn in Australia

What do you mean? From googling autumn seems to be the word used for that season (which is of course at a different time than the Northern Hemisphere)?

Oh, right. Their word for "fall" is "spring" ;)

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