What season is it in October? If you ask people from the UK, they will tell you it's "autumn". But if you go to the US, you will find that people use both "autumn" and "fall". Why does this season have two names in English?
According to a Dictionary.com, both words have been around for a long time, but neither of them was the first to describe this season. During this season, crops(庄稼) would become ripe and farmers would have a big harvest(丰收). So in old English, this season was simple called "harvest".
Then, in the 1600s, more people left their farms and moved to cities. Wish fewer people farming, the word "harvest" become less useful English speakers needed a different name for the season. They knew leaves fell from trees during the season, so people started calling it "the fall of the leaf" or "fall" for short.
But at the end of the 1600s, autumn from the French word "autompne" and the Latin "autumns", came to England. It gradually replaced(替代) "fall" as the word for this season.
At the same time, British people were making their first trips to North America. They brought both the words "fall" and "autumn" with them. That's why today's Americans have two names for one season.
