Here's another oddity regarding the word "time".

It's perfectly OK (in my usage, at least) to talk about "springtime", "summertime" and "wintertime" - but not "autumntime". Do the Americans call it "falltime"?

Conversely, I sometimes hear "September time", "October time" and "November time" to refer to the months of autumn - but it doesn't seem to work for the rest of the year. I don't recall ever hearing "January time", "April time", "July time" and so on. The one possible exception is "May time", but that seems to be confined to poetry.

What are other people's intuitions about this?

time

Not sure, but there are also the quasi-religious terms that end in -tide: Yuletide, Shrovetide, Whitsuntide, etc. Although, there are also springtide, noontide, etc.Tide is cognate with German Zeit 'time', but narrowed in meaning to the height of bodies of water at certain times of the day.

Language, especially in matters of vocabulary, is not always orthogonal.

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:


Language, especially in matters of vocabulary, is not always orthogonal.

Yeah, terms change. The tide rises, the tide falls...

I hear "fall (or autumn) time" or "winter time," etc., but not "September time" or "October time." I haven't heard "time" applied to the months. What about the rest of the Americans here?

Another variation on this theme: the weather forecaster last night said something like "expect some rain by evening time". The use of "time" in all these constructions is a bit odd, since it's apparently redundant; in all cases you could omit "time" without significantly changing the meaning. Or does the addition of the word "time" convey a slight sense of vagueness?

I think the "time" in that construction adds some vagueness. I'd just say "evening."