author

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

Noun

  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.
  2. The initial owner of the copyright to a work, especially a work made for hire or a work of corporate authorship.
    • The author named on the copyright registration for the Android robot is Google Inc.
  3. Someone who writes books for a living.
  4. Principal; the primary participant in a crime.
    • We hear […]of fratricidal murders, and stern reprisals on their authors. - 1879, F. D. Morice, Pindar, chapter 10, page 158:
    • 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. - 1894, Franco-Siamese Mixed Court, The Case of Kieng...
  5. One's authority for something: an informant.
    • 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...
    • '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...
  6. The creator or cause of anything.
    • The other, standing nearly head-on toward the hunters, had not proved so good a mark, and though every spear struck not one entered the great heart. For a moment the huge bull stood trumpeting in rage and pain, casting...

Origin

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.

Forms

authors aucthor aucthour auctor auctour auctoure authour authoure autor autour autoure

Synonyms

bookwright creator artist subcreator fabulator writer

Related

auteur authority authorization authorisation authorship

Derived

authorcraft authordom authorer authoress authress authorhood authorial authorish authorism authorless authorlike authorling authorly author mill author of life author's edition author's plural author's we AuthorTube coauthor co-author corresponding author death of the author hyperauthor

Verb

  1. To create a work as its author.

Forms

authors authoring authored aucthor aucthour auctor auctour auctoure authour authoure autor autour autoure

Derived

authorable