Is the season called “autumn” or “fall”? A jocular explanation was posted on Twitter—it is now removed—by Little Rocket Jim on November 19, 2013:
   
“Little Rocket Jim
@Turbo_Jimmy
UK-We call it Autumn, from the
French work “autompne” and later,
the Latin “autumnus”
USA-WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE
LEAF FALL DOWN
11/19/13, 6:44 AM”
   
“Leaves fall down” is sometimes written. This was posted on Twitter by “welcome to cloud island” on March 5, 2014:
 
[Flag of United Kingdom] - We call it Autumn, from the Latin word “autumnus”.                         
[Flag of United States] - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAVES FALL DOWN.
 
The autumn/fall saying has been printed on many images
 
         
Daily LOL Pics
(This shows a tweet that is not longer on Twitter.—ed.)
Little Rocket Jim
@Turbo_Jimmy
UK-We call it Autumn, from the
French work “autompne” and later,
the Latin “autumnus”
USA-WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE
LEAF FALL DOWN
11/19/13, 6:44 AM
 
Twitter
ayrin Creigh-Biggs
@AyrinBiggs
UK - We call it Autumn, from the French word “autompne” and later, the Latin “autumnus” USA - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAF FALL DOWN”
4:28 AM · Nov 20, 2013·Twitter for Android
   
Twitter
joshua thomas
@josh_2thomas
UK - We call it Autumn, from the French word “autompne” and later, the Latin “autumnus”
USA - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAF FALL DOWN
11:04 AM · Nov 22, 2013 from Georgia, USA·Twitter for iPhone
 
Reddit—Jokes
Posted by u/tehaveragejoel December 13, 2013
UK: We call it “Autumn”, from the French word “Automne”, and later, from the Latin “autumnus”.
USA: WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAVES FALL DOWN
COMMENTS
discipula_vitae
Latin: autumnus means cold because: IT GETS COLD!
Just because you take a word from other languages doesn’t make the root meaning of the word any more meaningful. It’s just as simple as Fall.
Also, plenty of people in the US call it Autumn as well.
   
Twitter
A Sal
@Adam_Salomon
We call it Autumn from the Latin “autumnus” and later, the french “automne”
USA - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAF FALL DOWN
5:44 PM · Feb 9, 2014·Twitter for Android
   
Twitter
LUDAchris469
@ConyeWest469
UK - we call it autumn from the French word “autompne” and later, the Latin “autumnus”
US - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAF FALL DOWN
6:19 PM · Feb 10, 2014·Twitter for iPhone
     
Twitter
Keo
@keokeoko
UK - we call it Autumn from the Latin word “Autumnus” 
USA - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAF FALL DOWN
RT @Turbo_jimmy
10:52 PM · Mar 3, 2014·Twitter Web Client
 
Twitter
welcome to cloud island
@freemasterpeace
[Flag of United Kingdom] - We call it Autumn, from the Latin word “autumnus”.                         
[Flag of United States] - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAVES FALL DOWN.
1:59 AM · Mar 5, 2014·Twitter for iPhone
   
Twitter
M Moosa
@mmoosa
UK - We call it Autumn, from the French word “autompne” and later, the Latin “autumnus”
USA - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAVES FALL DOWN
9:23 AM · Mar 30, 2014·Twitter for BlackBerry
   
Twitter
a mess
@Nevanderthal
UK - We call it Autumn, from the French word “autompne” and later, the Latin “autumnus”
USA - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAVES FALL DOWN
3:56 PM · Apr 28, 2014·Twitter Web Client
   
Twitter
Yik Yak
@YikYakApp
“UK: We call it Autumn from the French word “automne” and the Latin “autumnus.” USA: We call it “fall” because leaf fall down” — Wake Forest
9:05 AM · Sep 18, 2014·Unified Publishing
 
Twitter
Cloyd Rivers
@CloydRivers
UK - They call it Autumn, from the French word “autompne” and the Latin “autumnus”
USA - We call it Fall, because leaves fall down
Merica
11:25 AM · Sep 29, 2014·Hootsuite
     
Reddit—HelpMeFind
Posted by u/f1234k November 2, 2016
Help me find the US response to the Autumn vs Fall argument
The original UK quote was:
UK - We call it Autumn, from the French word “autompne” and later, the Latin “autumnus”
USA - WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAF FALL DOWN
There was later a US counter-argument on that. Can you please help me find it?
COMMENTS
Occamslaser
“The King’s English” (1908), H.W. Fowler wrote, “Fall is better on the merits than autumn, in every way: it is short, Saxon (like the other three season names), picturesque; it reveals its derivation to every one who uses it, not to the scholar only, like autumn.”
   
12 September 2020, The Wall Street Journal (New York, NY), “Fall’: A Trans-Atlantic Battle Over the Name of the Season” by Ben Zimmer, pg. C2:
In her 2018 book “The Prodigal Tongue,” Lynne Murphy, an American expatriate who teaches linguistics at the U.K.‘s University of Sussex, tackled these stereotypes. She points to a joke that has circulated on Twitter for several years: “UK: We call it Autumn, from the Old French word ‘autompne’ and the Latin ‘autumnus.’ USA: WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAF FALL DOWN.”
 
As Ms. Murphy puts it, the joke illustrates how Britons often suppose that English is spoken differently across the Atlantic “because Americans are a bit thick and need explicit instruction about the world.” It also presumes that Americans were the ones to come up with “fall” as the simpler name of the season. But you can find “fall” in the autumnal sense in Samuel Johnson’s 1755 ” Dictionary of the English Language ,” in turn supported by a 1693 quotation from a John Dryden poem. The Oxford English Dictionary takes it back even further, to a religious tract from 1550.
 
Twitter
Meanwhile in Canada
@MeanwhileinCana
United Kingdom:  We call it autumn, which is derived from the Latin word ‘autumnus’
Canada:  We call it fall because leaves fall down.
6:46 PM · Nov 8, 2020·Twitter Web App
 
Twitter
Patrick S. Tomlinson
@stealthygeek
England: We call it Autumn, derived from the Latin Autumnus, with connotations of “The passing of the year.”
America: WE CALL IT FALL BECAUSE LEAVES FALL DOWN.
2:47 PM · Oct 3, 2021·Twitter for Android
     
Twitter
Kirstie
@kirstie_talbot
UK:  We call it Autumn, from the Latin word “autumnus” and from the French word “Automne”
US: We call it fall because leaves fall down
1:36 PM · Oct 8, 2021·Twitter for iPhone
 
Twitter
Frenchy807
@frenchy807
We call it Fall because LEAF FALL DOWN
11:16 PM · Oct 17, 2021·Twitter for iPhone