in cosmography, certain portions or quarters of the year, distinguished by the signs which the sun then enters, or by the meridian altitudes of the sun; consequent on which are different temperatures of the air, different works in tillage, &c. See WEATHER.

The year is divided into four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The beginnings and endings of each whereof, see under its proper article. It is to be observed, the seasons anciently began differently from what they now do: witness the old verses,

Dat Clemens hyemem; dat Petrus ver cathedratus; Æstuat Urbanus; autumnat Bartholomaeus.