Autumn vs fall

19 years ago

With a background in both botany and horticulture, I do some contract writing for reference books, for publishers who like to think that their books will sell through most of the English-speaking world but especially North America. In some cases they have done so.

Book editors tend to follow style guides quite rigidly, I have found. I have no problems with following American spelling, and even using feet, inches, etc instead of just metres or centimetres (though I do think giving equivalents in parenthesis throughout does make text less readable).

But I do get slightly upset when editors globally change all my autumns to falls. My reasoning is that, 1. all North American readers understand 'autumn' perfectly well as an everyday alternative to 'fall', and 2. readers from other countries may find 'fall' puzzling, especially in certain kinds of syntax when it may even appear ambiguous.

Am I right in these assumptions? Or would some North American readers reading my text see 'autumn' as just a little bit foreign?

I am interested to have your comments.

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Comments (6)

The_Mohave__Kid
19 years ago
Autumn is fine with me ..

Good Day ...
eddie1
19 years ago
Since they are synonymous there is no point in changing them except for the fact that an editor might like the feeling that they contributed something. You are absolutely right in your feelings about this of course but I once had a friend who constantly argued with his wife about who was "right." I asked him which he would rather be, right or married? He is now divorced.
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inkognito
19 years ago
"readers from other countries may find 'fall' puzzling, especially in certain kinds of syntax when it may even appear ambiguous." I can't say that I have ever come across this, can you give an example? Autumn is a time when leaves fall and 'Fall' as a noun is more readily understood than autumn surely.
pinetree30
19 years ago
I used both autumn and fall in the title of a book; to wit, "Autumn Leaves: A Guide to the Fall colors of the Northwoods". If the order was reversed in that title, the title would have been pretty barbaric as it left the lips. It just wouldn't sound right. So autumn has it all over fall on esthetic grounds.
As for ambiguity, autumn has one meaning so cannot be confused; fall has multiple meanings so there is always the possibility of misconstruction. Any American who is not fully conversant with autumn needs a brain transplant. Our form of English in no way makes autumn a marginal word.
texasredhead
19 years ago
In Texas we have fall. It comes right after "my gawd it's hot" and "football". Autumn was invented by Kodak for the purpose of selling film in New England. The official Texas seasons are as follows; beginning with after Christmas sales, we have Intermittent Northers, Bluebonnets, Hay Fever, Tornado, Hot, Real Hot, Most Hot, My Gawd It's Hot, Football, and Fall. Every so often we throw in a Drought season to break up the monotomy.
ginny12
19 years ago
Hey, Texasredhead, that is pretty darn funny. You gave me a good laugh. If you made that up, you should patent it.

As far as the autumn-fall question goes, I think it depends on the literary context. One sounds right in some situations; the other, in others. In this country, they are synonyms--can't speak for elsewhere.