Fall — From Old English to English | etymologist.ai
fall
/fɔːl/·verb·before 900 CE·Established
Origin
From OldEnglish 'feallan' (to drop) — carrying both physical descent and moral weight, from the Fall of Man to empires.
Definition
To move downward, typically rapidly and freely without control; to drop from a higher to a lower level.
The Full Story
Old Englishbefore 900 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish 'feallan' (to fall, to fall down, to fail, to die in battle), from Proto-Germanic *fallaną (to fall), from PIE *pol- or *pel- meaning 'to fall, to flow.' ThePIEroot may connect to *plew- (to flow, float, fly), suggesting an original sense of downward movement. The Germanic cognatesinclude Old Norse 'falla,' Old
Did you know?
Americans call autumn 'fall' becauseEnglish colonists in the 1600s used the phrase 'fall of the leaf' to describe the season — later shortened to just 'fall.' The British later adopted the French-derived 'autumn' instead, making 'fall' seem like an Americanism, but it was originally good English.