How did the four seasons get their name?

Answer 1

Spring

"Spring" is an old word, and appears in many Germanic languages with a meaning like "to jump" or "to run". About two thousand (2000) years ago, the basic Germanic form was "spreng-" and by about one thousand (1000) years ago, when Old English was spoken, the word had changed to "spryng" or "spring" and has not changed significantly since then! However, the word "spring" was only began to be used to name the season following Winter in the 1500s (about five hundred (500) years ago). People had been using expressions like "spring of the leaf" and "spring time of the year" to describe the new growth of this season, and it seems likely that the season name "Spring" was formed from such expressions.

So what did people call this season before they called it "Spring"? In fact, the common Old English word naming the season following winter was "lencten", "lengten" or "lenten". This word is related to our word "long", perhaps coming from a Germanic form something like "langiton" used about two thousand (2000) years ago. Possibly, the word was used for the season following Winter because this was the time when the Sun's path was noticeably higher in the sky and the time of daylight lengthened--you can see how similar the modern English word "lengthen" is to the Old English word "lengten"! This word survives in our Modern English "Lenten" or "Lent". This word is now most commonly associated with the Christian Lent holidays which take place in the Spring. Lenten originally was just the season name, however, and only began acquiring its Christian associations after the Anglo-Saxons (which is the name we give to the Germanic inhabitants of England who spoke Old English between about 600 and 1100 CE) were converted to Christianity. In fact, the earliest use of it in a Christian context is from around 1020 CE.

English is the only Germanic language in which a word related to "Lenten" has a Christian religious association. It was used as a common name for the Spring season which followed Winter in several other West Germanic languages: Middle Dutch "lentin" and Old High German "lengizin/lenzin". Middle Low German and Modern Dutch "lente" are closely related forms also.

However, the various modern Germanic languages use a wide variety of words for the season "Spring", many of which are related neither to "Spring" nor "Lenten"--for example, modern High German "Frühling" and Swedish "vår". This much variation in names for the same season is very surprising when compared to words for Summer or Winter, most of which are nearly the same in the Germanic languages. This suggests that the season we call Spring may not have been as important as Summer or Winter. In fact, some old Germanic cultures only counted two seasons in the year--Summer and Winter--and didn't count Spring or Fall at all.

Autumn or Fall

It can have two names: "Autumn" or "Fall". Which one do the students use most often? Nowadays, the name "Fall" is probably used most often in American English, though "Autumn" is used as well. In British English, however, the word "Autumn" is used almost exclusively--British English used the word "Fall" for this season quite often, though now it is only sometimes found in some dialects of British English.

Why do you think this season might be called "Fall". What happens in the natural world during this season? The leaves on many trees die and fall to the ground. About five hundred (500) years ago, when Middle English was spoken, expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year" were quite common, and the season name "Fall" comes from them. It is interesting to note that although Old English, spoken about one thousand (1000) years ago, had a word "fiæll" (or "fyll")--meaning "fall" as in "a falling from a height"--this word not only did not mean "the season following Summer", but did not even change into our modern English word "fall"! Instead our word comes from the Old Norse word "fall" which, like Old English "fyll", also meant "a falling from a height". However, during the period after the Scandinavians (who spoke Old Norse) settled in England (between 800 and 1100 CE) their word "fall" was borrowed into English and replaced the Old English word "fyll". There are many other Old Norse which were borrowed into English at this time. But the word "fall" only came to refer to the season "Fall" in the 1500s.

Before the 1500s, this season was often called "Harvest". In fact, the name "Harvest" was used for this season quite commonly up until the end of the 1700s, after which the word "harvest" began to apply more specifically of the gathering of crops. Before the 1700s, most English-speaking people had occupations which had to do with farming, and "Harvest" was quite an appropriate name for this season when the crops were gathered in. However, after the Industrial Revolution beginning in the 1700s, fewer people were working on and around farms--in our times, most English-speaking people do not work in farming. So it is easy to see why the word "harvest" became less popular as a season name. "Harvest" comes from a Germanic word something like "harbistoz" or "harbustoz", used about two thousand (2000) years ago--this may have come from an older Indo-European root "harb-", used in words perhaps four thousand (4000) years ago, and meaning something to do with crops or fruit, or with plucking. By around one thousand (1000) years ago, the Germanic word "harbistoz" had turned into the Old English word "hærfest". By the time people spoke Middle English, about five hundred (500) years ago, people were already using our word "harvest". Here is how the Germanic word "harbistoz" turned out in other Germanic languages:

• Dutch: herfst
• Afrikaans: herfs
• High German: Herbst
• Icelandic: haust
• Swedish: höst
• Danish: høst
• Norwegian: høst/haust

The word "Autumn" is a little more mysterious. It comes ultimately from Latin "autumnus", which itself is of uncertain origin. In Middle English, spoken about five hundred (500) years ago, it was spelled "autompne" having been borrowed from Old French "autompne" (found in modern French as "automne". Middle English "autompne" was sometimes used as early as the 1300s, but only became common during the 1500s.

Summer

What is Summer? It is when school is out! It is also the warm and sunny season of the year, when sun is up more than at other times of the year and doesn't set until late in the evening. Not surprisingly, people have needed a word for summer for a very long time. In fact, of all the words for seasons used by the people who spoke Indo-European about six thousand (6000) years ago, only one of them is still used in English: summer. The Indo-Europeans used a basic word that started "sem-". By about two thousand (2000) years ago, people speaking Germanic had taken this basic start and turned it into "sumaraz". People who spoke Old English about one thousand (1000) years ago said "sumor". People who spoke Middle English about six hundred (600) years ago used a word like "sumer" or "sommer", which has become our word "summer". Here is how the Germanic word "sumaraz" turned out in other Germanic languages:

• West Frisian: sommer
• Dutch: zomer
• Afrikaans: somer
• Low German: sommer
• High German: Sommer
• Icelandic: sumar
• Swedish: sommar
• Danish: sommer

Winter

What is winter? It is the cold season, the snowy season--and if it isn't quite cold enough for snow it can be the wet season as well! In fact, our word "winter" is related to our words "wet", "water", and "wash". All these words come from an Indo-European basic form "wed-". People speaking Germanic, about two thousand (2000) years ago, used a word "wentruz" to mean "winter" (or "wet season"--for comparison, the Germanic word for "water" was "watar"). By about one thousand (1000) years ago, people speaking Old English had changed this word to "winter"--just like the modern word! Although it was sometimes spelled slightly differently (wynter, wintir, wintur, etc.), the word has scarcely changed at all in the past millennium. One might almost say that it had frozen (ha ha!).

Anyway, here is how the Germanic word "wintruz" turned out in other Germanic languages (and you can see many of them have words which are very similar to the English word "winter"!):

• Frisian: winter
• Dutch: winter
• Afrikaans: winter
• Low German: winter
• High German: Winter
• Gothic: wintrus
• Icelandic: vetur
• Swedish: vinter
• Danish: vinter
• Norwegian: vetter

However, many of us don't necessarily think of winter primarily as a wet season. Nevertheless, in some places (both in North America and elsewhere in the world) the most noticeable thing about the winter season is that it is wet! The words people use for seasons and their folklore about those seasons can vary depending on what the local weather is like. Perhaps the students can think of other names for our seasons that describe various weather or natural events that characterize those seasons.

Source: (http://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/Words/index.html)