autumn

en-noun

autumn (countable and uncountable, plural autumns)

Autumn Harvest Uprising
Autumnfest
German Autumn
Hot Autumn
Lacus Autumni
autumn

Inherited from Middle English autumpne, from Middle French automne, from Old French automne, autonne, from Latin autumnus.
Some verb senses are from Latin autumnāre.

autumn leaves

The Spring, the Sommer, / The childing Autumne, angry Winter change / Their wonted Liueries, […]

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 149, column 1:

In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.

1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Traditionally the third of the four seasons, when deciduous trees lose their leaves; typically regarded as being from September 24 to December 22 in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and the months of March, April and May in the Southern Hemisphere.


fall

fall (countable and uncountable, plural falls)

ascent

antonym(s) of “act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity”

ascent

antonym(s) of “loss of greatness or status”

Fall Classic
Fall of Baghdad
Fall of Constantinople
Fall of Rome
Fall of Saigon
Falls-to-Falls Corridor
fall
the Fall of France
the Fall of the Roman Empire

Verb from Middle English fallen, from Old English feallan (“to fall, fail, decay, die, attack”), from Proto-West Germanic *fallan (“to fall”), from Proto-Germanic *fallaną (“to fall”).
Cognate with West Frisian falle (“to fall”), Low German fallen (“to fall”), Dutch vallen (“to fall”), German fallen (“to fall”), Danish falde (“to fall”), Norwegian Bokmål falle (“to fall”), Norwegian Nynorsk falla (“to fall”), Icelandic falla (“to fall”), Lithuanian pùlti (“to attack, rush”).
Noun from Middle English fal, fall, falle, from Old English feall, ġefeall (“a falling, fall”) and Old English fealle (“trap, snare”), from Proto-Germanic *fallą, *fallaz (“a fall, trap”). Cognate with Dutch val, German Fall (“fall”) and German Falle (“trap, snare”), Danish fald, Swedish fall, Icelandic fall.
Sense of "autumn" is attested by the 1660s in England as a shortening of fall of the leaf (1540s), from the falling of leaves during this season. Along with autumn, it mostly replaced the older name harvest as that name began to be associated strictly with the act of harvesting. Compare spring, which began as a shortening of “spring of the leaf”.

inh

A friend has pointed out to me the following remark on this word: "In North America the season in which this [the fall of the leaf] takes place, derives its name from that circumstance, and instead of autumn is universally called the fall." [brackets in original]

1816, John Pickering, A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words Which Have Been Supposed to Be Peculiar to the United States of America:

(chiefly Canada, US, archaic in Britain) The time of the year when the leaves typically fall from the trees; autumn; the season of the year between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice.


Indian summer

French: été des Indiens, été indien

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Of North American origin, exact etymology uncertain. The most plausible suggestions are that Native Americans (or American Indians) called it a form of “summer” due to harvesting late plants or preparing for winter, or that European settlers coined it due to various Native American activities in this season, or due to the weather phenomenon being associated with regions inhabited by Native Americans. Alternatively, the use of the word Indian may indicate something deviating from the norm: compare terms like Indian bread, Indian corn.

Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer.

1778 January 17, J[ohn] Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, Letters from an American Farmer: […], London: Printed for Thomas Davies […], and Lockyer Davis […], published 1782, →OCLC; republished as Albert E. Stone, editor, Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth-century America (Penguin Classics), New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1986, →ISBN, page 233:

And while the bards, before my fancy bring / The Indian ſummer, and Italian ſpring, / Rapt let me mark the different climates found, / In Temple's gardens, and his lawns around.

1786 July, “Written in Lord Palmerston’s Park near Romsey, Hants”, in The County Magazine, volume VII, number I, Salisbury, Witshire: Printed for and sold by B. C. Collins, and by S. Crowder, in London, published 1788, →OCLC, page 100:

The gentlemen were still lounging on the gallery, fighting time with newspapers and cigars, for the Indian Summer kept up a charming pretense that Winter had forgotten to cross the water; […]

1869 February, “The Bismarck Moire”, in Frank Leslie’s Pleasant Hours: Devoted to Light and Entertaining Literature, volume VI, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Frank Leslie, […], →OCLC, chapter II, page 381, column 1:

There is sunshine in the face of all—a kind of Indian summer sunshine, infused with the sadness of a coming winter; and theirs is the winter of parting.

1892, Gilbert Parker, “Shon McGann’s Tobogan Ride”, in Pierre And His People: Tales of the Far North, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, section II, page 158:

Truth be told, I enjoyed the earthquake of '89; […] It was a warm night, Indian summer. The whole city seemed to be out of doors. It was like an enormous block party, all the neighbors sitting on their stoops, drinking beer, listening to their radios.

2004, August Kleinzahler, “The Dog, the Family: A Household Tale”, in Cutty, One Rock: Low Characters and Strange Places, Gently Explained, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, →ISBN, part 1:

A stretch of sunny and warm, often hazy, days during late autumn.

St. Luke's summer

St. Luke's little summer, little summer of St. Luke; in October


harvest

en-noun

harvest (countable and uncountable, plural harvests)

From Middle English harvest, hervest, from Old English hærfest (“autumn, harvest-time; August”), from Proto-West Germanic *harbist, from Proto-Germanic *harbistaz (“harvest-time, autumn, fall”), from *harbaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kerp-.
Cognates:
Cognate with Sylt North Frisian Hārefst, West Frisian hjerst, Dutch herfst, German Herbst, German Low German Harvst, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål høst, Norwegian Nynorsk haust; further with Latin carpere (“to seize”), Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós, “fruit”), κείρω (keírō, “to cut off”).

inh

Harvest is usually very damp and rainy.

(UK, dialectal) The third season of the year; autumn; fall.


autumnal

en-adj

autumnal (comparative more autumnal, superlative most autumnal)

more autumnal (comparative)
most autumnal (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin autumnāl(is). By surface analysis, autumn + -al.


leaf peeper

Those "leaf peepers" (that's what you will be to locals) whose New England wanderings lead them through Amherst, Boston, Cambridge, [...]

1984, Robert L. Sammons, Travel Holiday, volume 162, Floral Park, N.Y.: Travel Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 52:

Actually, I'm a leaf peeper myself in May, and when the trail began its acute northwest ascent into the Berkshire foothills west of Greenfield, I found myself marveling at the thousands of pale shades of green and yellow and pink in the new May leaves that walled the roadside and formed a canopy overhead.

1995, William G. Tapply, chapter 9, in The Seventh Enemy: A Brady Coyne Book, New York, N.Y.: Otto Penzler Books, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Integrated Media, 2013, →ISBN:

Fall colors bring leaf peepers out of the woodwork, making it a challenge to find uncrowded roads.

1995 September, “Technicolor Road Trips”, in Snow Country, volume 10, number 5, Trumbull, Conn.: NYT Sports/Leisure Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, image caption, page 237, column 3:

The valley was stunning this time of year in particular, which drove thousands of leaf-peepers to enter the Mount Washington Valley by busloads to take in the splendor that lay for all to see.

2004, Donna Marie Robie, chapter 5, in One Quiet Night: Murder in New Hampshire, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 22:

Perched on a peak amidst the leaf peeper’s paradise of Western North Carolina, Fire Mountain Inn is a secluded retreat with close ties to the land.

2007 October, “Best Places to Catch Fall Color”, in Rebecca Burns, editor, Atlanta, Atlanta, Ga.: Emmis Publishing, →ISSN, page 244, column 3:

[T]hey found the ski lifts were operating, taking leaf peepers up to the summit to view the beautiful fall foliage.

2014, Christyne Butler, chapter 5, in The Last-chance Maverick (Harlequin Special Edition), Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Books, →ISBN, page 81:

A magnet for leaf-peeper pilgrimages, the color is brilliant in autumn, sweeping over the knolls and rises of the landscape.

2014, Marcia Glassman-Jaffe, “The Berkshires”, in Amy Lyons, editor, Fun with the Family: Massachusetts: Hundreds of Ideas for Day Trips with the Kids (Fun with the Family Series), 8th edition, Guilford, Conn.: GPP Travel, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 1:

[R]aisin-apple butter muffins [...] We love apples, and apples in the fall are a big deal around here. There are heirloom apple tastings, thousands of home-baked apple pies are sold to leaf-peepers, and fresh cider is pressed along the side of the road.

2015, Nancy Cain, “Quick Breads, Breakfast Foods, and Muffins”, in Against the Grain: Extraordinary Gluten-free Recipes Made from Real, All-natural Ingredients, New York, N.Y.: Clarkson Potter Publishers, →ISBN:

(US, slang) A tree sightseer who enjoys observing the leaves change color in the autumn.


leaf peeping

(US, informal) The activity of traveling to view and photograph the changing colors of the fall foliage, particularly in New England.