In the 1500s， English speakers began calling the seasons separating the cold and warm months “fall of the leaf” or “spring of the leaf，” or “fall” and “spring” for short. Both terms were simple and evocative， but for some reason， only spring had staying power in Britain. By the end of the 1600s， autumn， from the French word autompne and the Latin autumnus， had overtaken fall as the standard British term for the third season.
