diff --git a/usr.bin/column/column.1 b/usr.bin/column/column.1
--- a/usr.bin/column/column.1
+++ b/usr.bin/column/column.1
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 .\"     @(#)column.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
 .\" $FreeBSD$
 .\"
-.Dd July 29, 2004
+.Dd February 22, 2019
 .Dt COLUMN 1
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
 The
 .Nm
 utility formats its input into multiple columns.
-Rows are filled before columns.
+Columns are filled before rows.
 Input is taken from
 .Ar file
 operands, or, by default, from the standard input.
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@
 option.
 Useful for pretty-printing displays.
 .It Fl x
-Fill columns before filling rows.
+Fill rows before filling columns.
 .El
 .Sh ENVIRONMENT
 The
@@ -95,6 +95,16 @@
 .Nm
 command appeared in
 .Bx 4.3 Reno .
+.Sh CAVEATS
+Historical versions of
+.Nm
+indicated that "rows are filled before columns" by default, and that the
+.Fl x
+option reverses this. This wording did not reflect the actual behavior, and
+it has since been corrected (see above). Other implementations of
+.Nm
+may continue to use the older documentation, but the behavior should be
+identical in any case.
 .Sh BUGS
 Input lines are limited to
 .Dv LINE_MAX