screenwriter

Etymology

It is formed from English screen + writer,^[2][3][4] the first part in its cinema sense.^[3] The noun had meant a surface for projected pictures since 1810, at first in magic-lantern shows, and the world of cinema as a whole since 1914.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who writes screenplays: 1913, in the Illustrated Films Monthly.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date it to 1921,^[3][5][6] Dictionary.com to 1920–25.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to a group of film terms formed with screen in the 1910s: screenplay is recorded from 1913, at first for a film and since 1920 for its script,^[2] and screenwriting from 1919.^[2] The OED's revised definition (2017) covers the writer of a television programme as well as of a film.^[2]

Timeline

• 1913 – a writer of screenplays.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who writes screenplays for films or television: The screenwriter changed the ending of the novel.^[2][7][8][5]

Word family

• screenwriting

Related words

• screenplay
• screen
• writer

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin