Etymograph

English

autumn

Autumn comes from Latin autumnus ‘autumn, fall’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ewǵ- ‘cold’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ewǵ-‘cold’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEautumnus‘autumn, fall’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400automne
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500autumpne‘autumn, fall’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596autumn

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ewǵ-‘cold’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEautumnus‘autumn, fall’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400automne
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500autumpne‘autumn, fall’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596autumn

Earliest quotation: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame: “The Spring, the Sommer, / The childing Autumne, angry…”

The story

Some of the verbal senses are from Latin autumnāre.

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ewǵ-

Today it means

noun Traditionally the third of the four seasons, when deciduous trees lose their leaves, and temperatures and daylight hours decrease; typically regarded as spanning the months of September, October, and November in the Northern Hemisphere, and the months of March, April and May in the Southern Hemisphere.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₃ewǵ- / autumn

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