Why do the English call autumn fall and the Americans vice-versa?

Pagiedamon

They don't normally. English usually call it autumn; Americans usually call it fall. Autumn as a word for the season came into common usage about the same time as Fall did. The English who settled the eastern American seaboard brought the word Fall with them from the homeland. The English who stayed home eventually adopted the word Autumn. Nowadays in England “Fall” sounds archaic and poetic, but in U.S. English “Autumn” has those connotations. http://www.dailywritingtips.com/autumn-or-fall/ Nov 23 08, 7:11 AM

Baloo55th

This doesn't explain why, but in areas with deciduous trees in the great majority, fall makes sense. In areas with evergreens or no trees, autumn is more logical (many evergreens shed in the spring as well as in the autumn). The English speaking part of the UK was (and is except where the Forestry Commission is in evidence) predominantly deciduous at the time the the word autumn came in. That's why this doesn't explain it. Nov 23 08, 8:29 AM

zbeckabee

Before the 16th century, harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season. However as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns (especially those who could read and write, the only people whose use of language we now know), the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and fall, as well as autumn, began to replace it as a reference to the season. The alternative word fall is now mostly a North American English word for the season. It traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning "to fall from a height" and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in the 16th century, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year". During the 17th century, English immigration to the colonies in North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took their language with them. While the term fall gradually became obsolescent in Britain, it became the more common term in North America, where autumn is nonetheless preferred in scientific and often in literary contexts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall#Etymology Nov 23 08, 9:48 AM