Autumn is the cruellest month.  OK, I know, that should read April but having put my back out quite badly recently, it’s stopped me from wandering around with The Hound and enjoying my favourite season of the year. So to accompany this post, here’s images from the past two years from lovely Hindhead Commons, Surrey.

I love a good tree and to see them in all their glory is a marvellous thing indeed. One day, I may make it over to Boston in their “Fall” but until then, I will make the most of the countryside in the south of England.

This leads me onto why we over here in the UK use the word “Autumn” and why the Americans feel more comfortable with the word “Fall”. More investigation via the internet.

The origins of the word Autumn, I read, came originally from the Etruscans, was snaffled by the Romans and became Autumnus – now Autumn. In the middle ages, we and our close neighbours the French continued to use similar terms – Autumpne in Middle English and Autompne in Old French (thank you wikipedia).  In the 16th century however in England, we used the word Fall much to my surprise.  This apparently stemmed from an old Germanic or Norse word – flaell – meaning broadly “fall of the leaf” to signify the end of harvesting.

When the Pilgrim Fathers went over to America in the 17th century, they took this word with them and continue to use it to this day when it has now become obsolete in the UK and we reverted to Autumn.

I always thought that American spelling and wording was closer to our original language – at least around the 16th and 17th centuries – which I guess this kind of proves.  Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?

Contributer & photographer: Sue Lowry

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