authorship

Etymology

It is formed from English author + -ship.^[2][3][4][5] The noun author came into Middle English from Old French autor (“author, originator, creator”) and directly from Latin auctor (“promoter, producer, founder”), an agent noun from auctus, the past participle of augeō (“to increase”), from Proto-Indo-European *aug- (“to increase”).^[3] The suffix -ship goes back to Old English -sciepe, Anglian -scip (“state, condition”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The career or occupation of an author: 1710, in Lord Shaftesbury's Soliloquy.^[2][6] Dictionary.com likewise dates the word to 1700–10,^[5] while Etymonline gives about 1500 for the sense "the function of being a writer".^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the occupation of writing, the word passed in 1748 to the fact of being the author of a particular piece of writing, its literary origin,^[2][4] a sense Etymonline dates from 1808.^[3] From 1768 it was used more generally for the fact of being the originator of an action or state of affairs, following the older sense of author as one who causes something.^[2][4] In the late 18th and 19th centuries a phrase such as his authorship could also mean the person himself considered as an author, a use recorded from 1782, in Cowper, to 1876 and now obsolete.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the function of being a writer, in Etymonline's dating.^[3]
• 1710 – the career or occupation of an author.^[2][6]
• 1748 – the fact of being the author of a writing; literary origin.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1808.^[3]
• 1768 – the fact of being the originator of an action or event.^[2]
• 1782 – with a possessive, a person considered as an author (obsolete by 1876).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The origin of a written work, or the identity of the person who wrote it: The authorship of the ballad is still disputed.^[7][6][2]
2. The profession or occupation of writing books or other published work.^[7][6][2]
3. The fact of being the originator of an action, plan or state of affairs.^[2][6]

Related words

• author
• authority
• authorize
• auction
• augment

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins