author definition

English author definition

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/
• (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.

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

   Have you read any Corinthian authors?

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →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^[1]:

     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^[2]:

     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. Someone who writes books for a living.
3. (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^[3], 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.

4. (obsolete) 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 […]

Synonyms

• (creator of a work): bookwright, creator, artist, subcreator, fabulator, writer

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

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.

Derived terms

• authorable

Translations

Anagrams

• Hotaru

Latin author definition

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical) 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.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	author	authōrēs
Genitive	authōris	authōrum
Dative	authōrī	authōribus
Accusative	authōrem	authōrēs
Ablative	authōre	authōribus
Vocative	author	authōrēs

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.

Middle English author definition

Noun

author

1. Alternative form of auctour