英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

autumn (n.)[autumn 词源字典]: late 14c., autumpne (modern form from 16c.), from Old French autumpne, automne (13c.), from Latin autumnus (also auctumnus, perhaps influenced by auctus "increase"), which is of unknown origin. Perhaps from Etruscan, but Tucker suggests a meaning "drying-up season" and a root in *auq- (which would suggest the form in -c- was the original) and compares archaic English sere-month "August."

Harvest was the English name for the season until autumn began to displace it 16c. In Britain, the season is popularly August through October; in U.S., September through November. Compare Italian autunno, Spanish otoño, Portuguese outono, all from the Latin word. Unlike the other three seasons, its names across the Indo-European languages leave no evidence that there ever was a common word for it.

Many "autumn" words mean "end, end of summer," or "harvest." Compare also Lithuanian ruduo "autumn," from rudas "reddish," in reference to leaves; Old Irish fogamar, literally "under-winter."[autumn etymology, autumn origin, 英语词源]
broaden (v.): 1727, from broad (adj.) + -en (1). The word seems no older than this date (discovered by Johnson in one of James Thomson's "Seasons" poems); broadened also is first found in the same poet, and past participle adjective broadening is recorded from 1850.
bundling (n.): 1640s, "a gathering into a bundle," verbal noun from bundle (v.). Meaning "sharing a bed for the night, fully dressed, wrapped up with someone of the opposite sex" (1782) is a former local custom in New England (especially Connecticut and southeastern Massachusetts). It was noted there from about 1750s and often regarded by outsiders as grossly immoral, but New Englanders wrote defenses of it and claimed it was practiced elsewhere, too. It seems to have died out with the 18th century.
I am no advocate for temptation; yet must say, that bundling has prevailed 160 years in New England, and, I verily believe, with ten times more chastity than the sitting on a sofa. I had daughters, and speak from near forty years' experience. Bundling takes place only in cold seasons of the year--the sofa in summer is more dangerous than the bed in winter. [The Rev. Samuel Peters, "A general history of Connecticut," 1782]
Good Friday (n.): the Friday before Easter, c. 1300, from good (adj.) in Middle English sense of "holy, sacred," especially of holy days or seasons observed by the church; the word also was applied to Christmas and Shrove Tuesday. Good Twelfthe Dai (c. 1500) was Epiphany (the twelfth day after Christmas).
harvest (n.): Old English hærfest "autumn," as one of the four seasons, "period between August and November," from Proto-Germanic *harbitas (cognates: Old Saxon hervist, Old Frisian and Dutch herfst, German Herbst "autumn," Old Norse haust "harvest"), from PIE *kerp- "to gather, pluck, harvest" (cognates: Sanskrit krpana- "sword," krpani "shears;" Greek karpos "fruit," karpizomai "make harvest of;" Latin carpere "to cut, divide, pluck;" Lithuanian kerpu "cut;" Middle Irish cerbaim "cut").

In Old English with only implied reference to the gathering of crops. The borrowing of autumn and the use of fall (n.) in a seasonal sense gradually focused the meaning of harvest to "the time of gathering crops" (mid-13c.), also to the action itself and the product of the action (after c. 1300), which became its main senses from 14c. Figurative use by 1530s. As an adjective from late 14c. Harvest home (1570s) was a festive celebration of the bringing home the last of the harvest; harvest moon (1704) is that which is full within a fortnight of the autumnal equinox.
Ramadan (n.): ninth month of the Muslim year, 1590s, from Arabic Ramadan (Turkish and Persian ramazan), originally "the hot month," from ramida "be burnt, scorched" (compare Mishnaic Hebrew remetz "hot ashes, embers"). In the Islamic lunar calendar, it passes through all seasons in a cycle of about 33 years, but evidently originally it was a summer month.
seasonal (adj.): "pertaining to the seasons; relating to a season," 1829, from season (n.) + -al (1). Of workers or employment, from 1904. Related: Seasonally.
sweltering (adj.): "oppressively hot" (of weather, seasons), 1590s, present participle adjective from swelter (v.). Related: Swelteringly.
temperate (adj.): late 14c., of persons, "modest, forbearing, self-restrained, not swayed by passion;" of climates or seasons, "not liable to excessive heat or cold," from Latin temperatus "restrained, regulated, limited, moderate, sober, calm, steady," from past participle of temperare "to moderate, regulate" (see temper (v.)). Related: Temperately; temperateness. Temperate zone is attested from 1550s.
variable (adj.): late 14c., of persons, "apt to change, fickle," from Old French variable "various, changeable, fickle," from Late Latin variabilis "changeable," from variare "to change" (see vary). Of weather, seasons, etc., attested from late 15c.; of stars, from 1788.