The word fall is now mostly a North American English word for the season. It traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning "to fall from a height" and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term only came to denote the season in the 16th century, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year".
