I thought I’d look up Autumn – so here it is Autumn autumnal (adj.) Look up autumnal at Dictionary 1570s, from Latin autumnalis pertaining to autumn, from autumnus (see autumn). autumn (n.) Look up autumn at Dictionary late 14c., autumpne (modern form from 16c.), from Old French autumpne, automne (13c.), from Latin autumnus (also auctumnus, perhaps influenced by auctus increase), of unknown origin. Perhaps from Etruscan, but Tucker suggests a meaning drying-up season and a root in *auq- (which would suggest the form in -c- was the original) and compares archaic English sere-month August. Harvest was the English name for the season until autumn began to displace it 16c. In Britain, the season is popularly August through October; in U.S., September through November. Compare Italian autunno, Spanish otoño, Portuguese outono, all from the Latin word. Unlike the other three seasons, its names across the Indo-European languages leave no evidence that there ever was a common word for it. Many autumn words mean end, end of summer, or harvest. Compare also Lithuanian ruduo autumn, from rudas reddish, in reference to leaves; Old Irish fogamar, literally under-winter. harvest (n.) Look up harvest at Dictionary Old English hærfest autumn, period between August and November, from Proto-Germanic *harbitas (cognates: Old Saxon hervist, Old Frisian and Dutch herfst, German Herbst autumn, Old Norse haust harvest), from PIE *kerp- to gather, pluck, harvest (cognates: Sanskrit krpana- sword, krpani shears; Greek karpos fruit, karpizomai make harvest of; Latin carpere to cut, divide, pluck; Lithuanian kerpu cut; Middle Irish cerbaim cut). The borrowing of autumn and the use of fall in a seasonal sense gradually focused the meaning of harvest to the time of gathering crops (mid-13c.), then to the action itself and the product of the action (after c.1300). Figurative use by 1530s. Harvest home (1590s) is the occasion of bringing home the last of the harvest; harvest moon (1706) is that which is full within a fortnight of the autumnal equinox. gossamer (n.) Look up gossamer at Dictionary c.1300, spider threads spun in fields of stubble in late fall, apparently from gos goose + sumer summer (compare Swedish sommertrad summer thread). The reference might be to a fancied resemblance of the silk to goose down, or because geese are in season then. The German equivalent mädchensommer (literally girls summer) also has a sense of Indian summer, and the English word originally may have referred to a warm spell in autumn before being transferred to a phenomenon especially noticable then. Compare obsolete Scottish go-summer period of summer-like weather in late autumn. Meaning anything light or flimsy is from c.1400. The adjective sense filmy is attested from 1802. era (n.) Look up era at Dictionary 1716, earlier aera (1610s), from Late Latin aera, era an era or epoch from which time is reckoned (7c.), probably identical with Latin aera counters used for calculation, plural of aes (genitive aeris) brass, copper, money (see ore, also compare copper). The Latin words use in chronology said to have begun in 5c. Spain (where the local era, aera Hispanica, began 38 B.C.E.; some say because of a tax levied that year). Other ancient eras included the Chaldean (autumn of 311 B.C.E.), the Era of Actium (31 B.C.E.), of Antioch (49 B.C.E.), of Tyre (126 B.C.E.), the Olympiadic (July 1, 776 B.C.E.) and the Seleucidan (autumn 312 B.C.E.). In English it originally meant the starting point of an age (compare epoch); meaning system of chronological notation is from 1640s; that of historical period is from 1741, as in the U.S. Era of Good Feeling (1817) was anything but. amaryllis (n.) Look up amaryllis at Dictionary autumn-flowering bulbs, 1794, adopted by Linnaeus from Latin, from Greek Amaryllis, typical name of a country girl or shepherdess (in Theocritus, Virgil, Ovid, etc.). fall (n.) Look up fall at Dictionary c.1200, a falling; see fall (n.). Old English noun form, fealle, meant snare, trap. Sense of autumn (now only in U.S.) is 1660s, short for fall of the leaf (1540s). That of cascade, waterfall is from 1570s. Wrestling sense is from 1550s. Of a city under siege, etc., 1580s. Fall guy is from 1906. Fauvist (n.) Look up Fauvist at Dictionary movement in painting associated with Henri Matisse, 1915, from French fauve, wild beast (12c., in Old French fawn-colored horse, dark-colored thing, dull, from Frankish *falw-, from the Germanic root of fallow (adj.)). Coined by French art critic Louis Vauxcelles at Autumn Salon of 1905. It was a reaction against impressionism, featuring vivid use of colors. Related: Fauvism. xantho- Look up xantho- at Dictionary before vowels xanth-, word-forming element meaning yellow, from Greek xanthos yellow of various shades; used especially of hair and horses, of unknown origin. Used in scientific words; such as xanthein (1857) soluble yellow coloring matter in flowers, xanthophyll (1838) yellow coloring matter in autumn leaves. Also Huxleys Xanthochroi (1867) blond, light-skinned races of Europe (with okhros pale). earn (v.) Look up earn at Dictionary Old English earnian deserve, earn, merit, labor for, win, get a reward for labor, from Proto-Germanic *aznon do harvest work, serve (source also of Old Frisian esna reward, pay), denominative verb from *azno labor especially field labor (source of Old Norse önn work in the field, Old High German arnon to reap), from PIE root *es-en- harvest, fall (cognates: Old High German aren harvest, crop, German Ernte harvest, Old English ern harvest, Gothic asans harvest, summer, Old Church Slavonic jeseni, Russian osen, Old Prussian assanis autumn). Also from the same root are Gothic asneis, Old High German esni hired laborer, day laborer, Old English esne serf, laborer, man. Related: Earned; earning.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 21:28:09 +0000
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