Monday, November 16, 2009
You say autumn, I say fall; let's call the whole thing off
Tom Angleberger
The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?
Recent columns
Q: What is the difference between autumn and fall?
-- Ed Greer, Smithfield, N.C.
A: Today we use these words interchangeably, but there may have once been a difference -- at least to one famous author.
"The spring succeeds the summer, the summer the fall, the fall the autumn, the autumn the winter, and the winter the spring, and so time rolls with never-ceasing wheel," wrote Miguel de Cervantes in "Don Quixote."(Of course, Cervantes was writing in Spanish, not English, but his meaning was clear enough for the translator to use two different words.)
Cervantes' use didn't really catch on, obviously, and these days there doesn't seem to be much difference in meaning. The difference is in where they're used.
The Oxford English Dictionary notes that fall is now "rare in literary use" in England. However it may be spoken or found in little phrases, such as "the fall of the year."
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable calls the use of fall to mean autumn "an American revival," suggesting that the British had already tired of it when we put it into use. Or, as the writer Brander Matthews once wrote of "fall," "rooster" and other American words: "they are good old English words of honorable lineage, which our kin across the sea have allowed to die and which we on this side ... have kept alive."
Fall and autumn both have strong English roots, of course. The Oxford dictionary tells us that fall has been around since at least 1545, when it was used as "the faule of the leafe." Autumn goes back even further to at least the time when Chaucer spelled it "autumpne."
Q: I heard that Roanoke County gets more than 80 percent of its tax base from residents and the remainder from businesses. Then someone else said it was the opposite. Could you please advise which is correct?
-- N.B. Long, Roanoke
A: "The ratio usually runs about 80 percent residents and 20 percent business," explained Roanoke County Treasurer Kevin Hutchins.
Brent Robertson, the county's budget director, put the current ratio at about 78 percent and 22 percent.
Grammar Grumblings
Joan Bugbee wrote in to grumble about "Where's he at?" and similar questions ending with the word "at."
Where did she see this mistake at?
"I can't give a specific example because this usage is everywhere," she wrote. "It's a virtual epidemic."
This epidemic is, of course, just a subset of the pandemic of ending sentences with prepositions. (Sadly, I was infected long ago.)
The cure is pretty simple: "In most cases you don't need the preposition," explained our Grammar Guru, Virgil Cook.
For example, "where's he at?" can become "where is he?" quite painlessly. Or a sentence can be rearranged. "What day is Thanksgiving on?" can be changed to "When is Thanksgiving this year?" suggests Cook.
However, he notes that sometimes this can lead to new problems: "Which house does he live in?" is actually less awkward than "In which house does he live?"
n n n
This is the last call for questions for our fall edition of Ask the Readers. If you need to know something about the good old days -- or the bad old days -- another of my readers may have the answer you need. I'm especially eager for a good holiday-themed question or two.
Got a question? Got an answer? Call Tom Angleberger at 777-6476 or send an e-mail to woym@roanoke.com. Don't forget to provide your full name, its proper spelling and your hometown.
Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.
