author

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈɔː.θə/, US /ˈɑː.θɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English autour, auctour,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman auctour, autour,^[3][5] Old French autor, auctor (modern auteur),^[2][6] from Latin auctor (“promoter, producer, father; founder; trustworthy writer”),^[2][4] literally “one who causes to grow”,^[2][3] an agent noun from auctus, the past participle of augēre (“to increase”),^[2][3] which Etymonline takes to Proto-Indo-European *aug- (“to increase”).^[2] Latin -ct- had already become -t- in some parts of Italy, and autor appears in late classical Latin, though it was considered an error.^[2] The spelling with -th-, a scribal variant in French, came in during the Renaissance on the mistaken belief that the word was Greek,^[3][2] perhaps helped by authentic;^[7] it appeared in English in the early 1500s and in time changed the pronunciation.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who begets, a father or ancestor: about 1300, a sense now obsolete;^[8] “one who makes or creates something” is from the mid-14th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In medieval English an author was the person who originated, invented or caused something, and God was called “the Author of all”.^[9][8] From the late 14th century it was also the writer or original composer of a text, as distinct from a compiler, translator or copyist,^[2][8] and a source of authoritative information, a sense now archaic but surviving in authority.^[2][8] In Middle English the word was sometimes confused with actor.^[2] The verb, “to originate, cause”, from 1596, died out after the 1630s^[3][8] and was revived in the 1940s, chiefly in the United States, in the sense “to write”.^[3][2] Authorship is from 1710.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a father, ancestor.^[8]
• mid-14th century – creator, originator.^[2]
• c. 1380 – the writer of a text.^[8]
• 1529 – the spelling author, in Thomas More.^[3]
• 1596 – verb, to originate.^[3][8]
• 1710 – authorship.^[3]
• 1940s – verb revived, to write.^[3][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The writer of a book or other text; a person whose profession is writing.
2. A person who creates or begins something; an originator.
3. the Author: God, as creator.

Verb

1. To be the author of; to write.

Word family

• authorial
• authorless
• authoress
• coauthor

Related words

• authorization
• authorisation
• authority
• authorship
• auteur
• authorize
• augment
• auction
• auxiliary
• eke

Usage notes

The revived verb author is not quite a synonym of write: it suggests taking responsibility for the content of a text, so one can write, but not author, a love letter.^[10] In Scots and Gloucestershire use my author meant “my informant”.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)