根据词典网站Dictionary.com，fall并不是秋天的传统说法autumn的现代别称。这两个说法最早的记录相距时间不到几百年。

Before either word emerged in the lexicon, the season between summer and winter was known as harvest, or hærfest in Old English. The word is of Germanic stock and meant "picking," "plucking," or "reaping," a nod to the act of gathering and preserving crops before winter.

在这两个词出现之前，夏天和冬天之间的这个季节在英语中被称为harvest，古英语是hærfest。该词源于日耳曼语，意思是“采摘”或“收割”，指的是在冬天之前收集和储藏粮食。

In the 1500s, English speakers began referring to the seasons separating the cold and warm months as either the fall of the leaf or spring of the leaf, or fall and spring for short. Both terms were simple and evocative, but for some reason, only spring had staying power in Britain. By the end of the 1600s, autumn, from the French word autompne and the Latin autumnus, had overtaken fall as the standard British term for the third season.

在16世纪，以英语为母语的人开始用树叶的落下（简称fall）或生长（简称spring）来指代寒热两季之间的几个月。两个词都是既简单又形象，但是出于某种原因，只有spring在英国流传了下来。到了17世纪末，源自法语autompne和拉丁语autumnus的autumn取代fall成为指代第三个季节的标准英国用词。

【为什么美国人把秋天叫作fall？真相原来是这个！】相关文章：

★ 为什么事情这么令人恼火呢？

★ 英国人真的很有礼貌吗？

★ 为什么要在复活节吃巧克力兔？

★ 为什么要辞掉现在的工作?

★ 办公室里最让人分心的是什么？同事聊天排第二，第一是……

★ 为什么你戒不掉巧克力?科学家说:不光是因为好吃

★ 什么样的人注定无法成功？

★ 让屏幕代替父母陪孩子？世卫组织：这样是不对的！

★ 研究发现，临终关怀在美国和加拿大各不相同

★ 每天1万步就叫健康吗？这原来是日本人的营销