> I always thought that describing what happens in a season is a pretty poor naming convention. Also, why the one out of the four?
As much as I share your dislike for the term, you're talking bollocks...
Combined with...fall (n.)
Sense of "autumn" (now only in U.S. but formerly common in England) is by 1660s, short for fall of the leaf (1540s).
and...winter (n.)
Old English winter (plural wintru), "the fourth and coldest season of the year, winter," from Proto-Germanic *wintruz "winter" (cognates: Old Frisian, Dutch winter, Old Saxon, Old High German wintar, German winter, Danish and Swedish vinter, Gothic wintrus, Old Norse vetr "winter"), probably literally "the wet season," from PIE *wend-, from root *wed- (1) "water, wet" (see water (n.1)).
Oh hey, there they go talking about that leaf again.spring (n.1)
season following winter, the vernal season, c. 1400, earlier springing time (late 14c.), which replaced Lent, the Old English word. From spring (v.); also see spring (n.3). The notion is of the "spring of the year," when plants begin to rise (as in spring of the leaf, 1520s), from the noun in its old sense of "action or time of rising or springing into existence."
But at least there's still one that's... oh, wait, what's that...
summer (n.1)That's the worst fucking one of the lot! Not even anything to do with the big burny hot thing in the sky?
...blah blah blah... Sanskrit sama "season, half-year,"
Dead Plants.
Rainy Times.
New Plants.
The Other Bit.
>.<