wordaday

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Keats To Autumn ll. 1-11

Yes, it’s definitely fall, or autumn, for those who prefer more formal language. Autumn as a noun in the AHD is:

1. The season of the year between summer and winter, lasting from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice and from September to December in the Northern Hemisphere; fall.2. A period of maturity verging on decline.

Autumn is one of those words we’re not completely sure about, in terms of its etymology. We know, as the AHD
observes, that autumn entered Modern English via Middle English autumpne, from Old French autompne, from Latin autumnus. But the earlier history of autumn is not at all clear. The OED directs readers to the standard Latin dictionary by Lewis and Short, who suggests that Latin autumnus may be related to the older Latin augere, or “increase.” Before about the sixteenth century, harvest was the preferred name for this time of year; now, in North America, fall seems to be the favored word.

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