author

Alternative forms

• aucthor, aucthour, auctor, auctour, auctoure, authour, authoure, autor, autour, autoure (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English auctour, from Anglo-Norman autour, from Old French autor, from Latin auctor, from augeō (“to increase, originate”). The h, also found in Middle French autheur, is unetymological as there is no h in the original Latin spelling. The OED attributes the h to contamination by authentic. Doublet of auteur.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɔː.θə(ɹ)/
• (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): [ˈoː.θə(ɹ)]
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈɔ(ː)θ(ə)ɹ]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔ.θɚ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɑ.θɚ/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈɒː.təɹ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːθə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: au‧thor

Noun

author (plural authors)

1. The originator or creator of a work, especially of a literary composition; or, one of the creators of a collaborative work.

   The copyright of any original writing belongs initially and properly to its author.

   Have you read any Corinthian authors?

   This paper has three authors.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Eternal King; thee, Author of all being.

   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond‎:

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]

   • 1755, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, Preface:

     The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond‎:

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]

2. (copyright law) The initial owner of the copyright to a work, especially a work made for hire or a work of corporate authorship.

   Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is the author of this work for copyright purposes.

3. Someone who writes books for a living.
4. (obsolete, criminal law) Principal; the primary participant in a crime.
   • 1879, F. D. Morice, Pindar, chapter 10, page 158:

     We hear […] of fratricidal murders, and stern reprisals on their authors.

   • 1894, Franco-Siamese Mixed Court, The Case of Kieng Chek (Kham Muon) before the Franco-Siamese Mixed Court‎, Bangkok: n.p., page 4:

     Accomplices of a crime or an offence shall incur the same punishment as the authors of such a crime or offence, except when the law will have disposed otherwise.

5. (archaic) One's authority for something: an informant.
   • 1699, Seven new Colloquies translated out of Erasmus:

     Let me inform you en passant, Ladies, that those Villains the Heathens, as my Authors tell me, (and I thought it wou'd^[sic] not be amiss to communicate such a nice Observation to this House) used to call our Saviour Chrestus, and not Christus, by way of Contempt and Derision […]

   • 1896, Robert Louis Stevenson, Weir of Hermiston:

     'Wanting the hat,' continues my author, Kirstie, whom I but haltingly follow, for she told this tale like one inspired, 'wanting guns, for there wasna twa grains o' pouder in the house, wi' nae mair weepons than their sticks into their hands, the fower o' them took the road.

Verb

author (third-person singular simple present authors, present participle authoring, simple past and past participle authored)

1. (chiefly US, sometimes proscribed) To create a work as its author.

Anagrams

• Hotaru

Etymology

Late variant of auctor and autor under influence of descendants such as English author.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈau̯.tʰor/, [ˈäu̯t̪ʰɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈau̯.tor/, [ˈäːu̯t̪or]

Noun

author m (genitive authōris); third declension

1. (New Latin, proscribed) Alternative form of auctor: source, creator, vendor, author, artist.

References

• “author”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  “auctor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• auctor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 184f..

Noun

author

1. Alternative form of auctour