Fall, (meaning autumn) used to be used in UK, but if fell into disuse in the mid 1600's.. just a english settlers were moving to New England and Virginia, and so on.. Cut off from (then) current fashions, the new world speakers of english continued to use Fall; Autumn prevailed in Old world.

both words are now known to both old world and new world english speakers, but autumn prevail in UK and in areas settles long after fall became unfashionable, Fall more common in US and Canada. (bill byson covers it in full in one of his books on english)


my other obsession