“AUTUMN” OR “FALL”?
Question from Sydney (Australia): Why do Americans call the “autumn”the “fall”? You do not call the spring the “rise.” What’s the matter with that nice word “autumn.”? Editor’s reply: As for “autumn,” nothing the matter with it, really. Many Americans use it. There is, however, something to be said on the appropriateness of using “fall” to designate the season when the leaves fall from the trees. H. W. and F. G. Fowler said it eloquently in “The King’s English”: “Fall is better on the merits than autumn, in every way; it is short, Saxon (like the other three season names), picturesque! it reveals its derivation to everyone who uses it, not to the scholar only, like autumn; and we (the English) once had as good a right to it is the Americans; but we have chosen to let that right lapse, and to use the word now is no better than larceny."—Christian Science Monitor.
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Bibliographic details
Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 28 June 1943, Page 1
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157“AUTUMN” OR “FALL”? Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 28 June 1943, Page 1
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