Forms: 4–6 autumpne, 6 authum, 6–7 autumne, 7 autome, 7– autumn. [a. OF. autompne (mod. automne), ad. L. autumnus (also written auctumnus), of doubtful etymology. See Lewis and Short.]
1. The third season of the year, or that between summer and winter, reckoned astronomically from the descending equinox to the winter solstice; i.e., in the northern hemisphere, from September 21 to December 21. Popularly, it comprises, in Great Britain, August, September and October (J.); in North America, September, October and November (Webster); in France ‘from the end of August to the first fortnight of November’ (Littré); in the southern hemisphere it corresponds in time to the northern spring.
The astronomic reckoning retains the Roman computation; the antiquity of the popular English usage is seen in the name Midsummer Day, given to the first day of the Astronomical Summer, and in the OE. midsumormónað ‘June,’ midwinter ‘winter-solstice, Christmas.’
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., IV. vii. 144. Autumpne comeþ aȝeyne heuy of apples.
1526. Tindale, Jude 8. Trees rotten in authum.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shrew, I. ii. 96. Though she chide as loud As thunder, when the clouds in Autumne cracke.
1653. Walton, Angler, 204. In Autome, when the weeds begin to … rot.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, I. 292. When the leaves Fell in the autumn.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 610. Autumn’s mock sunshine of the faded woods.
b. poet. The fruits of autumn; ‘harvest.’
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 394. Rais’d of grassie terf Thir Table was … And on her ample square, from side to side, All Autumn pil’d.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, I. 24 (J.).
| The starv’ling Brood, | |
| Void of sufficient Sustenance, will yield | |
| A slender Autumn. |
2. fig. A season of maturity, or of incipient decay.
1624. Donne, Serm., ii. (1640), 13. In heaven it is always Autumn; his mercies are ever in their maturity.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 219/2. The very autumn of a form once fine Retains its beauties.
3. Comb. a. attrib., as autumn fruit, leaf, tide; b. instrumental, as autumn-tinted; c. locative (of time), as autumn-sown. Autumn-bells, English name of Gentiana Pneumonanthe; autumn-fly (see quot.); autumn-spring, a spring in autumn.
1597. Gerard, Herball, II. ciii. 355. Calathian Violet … is called … in English *Autumne bell flowers.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. IV. i. 234. The *Autumn Fly (Conops Calcitrans, Linn.) … bites the legs, especially on the approach of rain.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vii. 116. Lesse hurtfull then other *Autumne fruites.
1713. C’tess Winchilsea, Misc. Poems, 4. *Autumn Leaves, which every Wind can chace.
1883. Daily News, 25 June, 5/8. On all soils everything but the *autumn-sown wheat needed rain.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. xi. (1840), 133. This short prosperity, like an *autumn-spring, came too late … to bring any fruit to maturity.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. II. 485. The changing year came round to *autumn-tide.
1884. J. Hatton, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 346/1. *Autumn-tinted branches.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, III. 380. Wither’d leaves which *autumn winds Had drifted in.
