Distributed for Bodleian Library Publishing
A Word for All Seasons
Linguist David Crystal’s absorbing journey through the origins of seasonal English words and phrases.
In this dazzling linguistic journey, David Crystal guides readers through the fascinating history of English’s seasonal vocabulary. Spring chicken, dog days, and Halloween are just a few of the over 100 words and phrases brought together here to show how the ways we speak about the changing seasons have become one of the most productive areas of the English lexicon. Exploring the origins of words associated with spring, summer, autumn, and winter—along with the very word “season” itself—Crystal shows how these turns of phrase have long been used creatively in such worlds as commerce, politics, and the arts, including idioms and extracts from poetry. Illuminating and intriguing, A Word for All Seasons demonstrates how the words and phrases we’ve long linked to specific times of our year have spread throughout the English language.
248 pages | 29 halftones | 6.14 x 9.21 | © 2026
Language and Linguistics: General Language and Linguistics
Table of Contents
A SEASON OF SEASONS 3
season ? dead season ? equinox ? fashion season ? for all
seasons ? Four Seasons ? in season, out of season ? open
season, close season ? seasonality ? seasoning ? season
ticket ? silly season ? solstice ? travel seasons ? seasonal
sayings
SPRING 37
spring ? April Fool ? April showers ? Easter ? Easter
egg ? frondescence ? gowk storm ? hot cross buns ? Lady
Day ? lamb storm ? Lent ? little winter ? May ? paschal ?
primavera ? seedtime ? shrovetide ? simnel cake ? spring
chicken ? spring clean(ing) ? spring fever ? spring in
politics ? spring moons ? spring roll ? vernal ? zephyr ?
spring sayings
SUMMER 87
summer ? aestive ? Barnabas Day ? dog days ? heatwave ?
high summer ? Lammas ? long hot summer ? midsummer ?
St Swithun’s Day ? strawberries and cream ? summer games ? summer house ? summer pudding ? summer
time ? summer sayings
AUTUMN/FALL 119
autumn/fall ? back end ? churn supper ? guy ? Halloween ?
harvest ? hay ? Indian summer ? Michaelmas ? reap ?
Thanksgiving ? autumn sayings
WINTER 145
winter ? Advent ? apple cider ? apricity ? boreal ? Boxing
Day ? brumal ? Candlemas ? Christingle ? Christmas ?
Christmas creep ? eggnog ? figgy pudding ? Groundhog
Day ? first footing ? Handsel Monday ? hibernal ? hiemal ?
Hogmanay ? Jack Frost ? Kris Kringle ? Lucy light ?
Martinmas ? mince pies ? mistletoe ? nival ? Plough
Sunday, Plough Monday ? plum duff ? Santa Claus ?
snow ? sugar plum ? wassail ? winter hedge ? winter of
discontent ? winter woollies ? Yule ? winter sayings
SEASON CONTRASTS 207
blends ? contrasts ? age ? living ? love ? transitions