Are you a fall person or an autumn person?

When the leaves start to turn and the air gets crisp, you might hear both “fall” and “autumn” used to describe the season, but which one is correct? They can definitely be used interchangeably, but they actually have two different meanings.

Autumn comes from the Latin word autumnus and became common in British English in the 1300s. Fall, on the other hand, is actually a shortened version of “fall of the leaf,” which popped up in the English language around the 1600s.

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While autumn is still the preferred term in the U.K. and much of the English-speaking world, fall became the go-to word in the United States. It’s a great example of how American English evolved its own flavor. In fact, fall is one of the few truly American terms for a season.

No matter what you call it, this time of year brings big changes in weather patterns: cooler air, shifting jet streams, shorter days and, in many places, the arrival of colorful foliage and the first frost. So whether you say fall or autumn, the science — and the sweater weather — stays the same.

Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.