Since 1992
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By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Indian Summer
Since at least the early 1800s, North Americans have referred to those pleasantly warm days during the crisp beginnings of autumn as “Indian summer.”
Meteorologically speaking, it means an abnormally warm stretch of weather that occurs mid to late autumn after the first frost. The phrase started in New England, but the origins are unclear despite one Bostonian researching the expression for nearly 12 years. He was finally able to say when it came into common use, but not why. Some theories suggest that early American settlers thought the autumn haze was because of Native American campfires or that Native Americans might have used this period as a favorable time to attack settlers. The less paranoid saw it as an opportunity Native Americans used to gather additional food for winter. After a couple hundred years, and given growing awareness of terms that make offensive generalizations about native people and others, it may be time to find a new name for the mild weather phenomenon.
England and Australia have borrowed the term, but also call it “old wives summer,” an expression of equally unclear origins. Many countries name the warm break for the saint whose feast falls around the time, resulting in St. Luke’s summer in October or St. Martin’s in November. In Sweden, the warm spell is “brittsomer,” after St. Bridget, the only Swedish saint. Swedes also call it “badger summer” because badgers actively stock up on winter food during this time. Seriously fun fact: Badger-phobic Swedes have a cultural fear of badgers that stem from a folk belief that biting badgers will not let go of an arm or leg until they hear a bone snap. Savvy Swedish hikers commonly hide crispbread in their socks to trick any ankle-grabbing badgers into thinking they’ve snapped bone.
