author
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: copyright
intellectual-property
law
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.
Inflected forms:
form: authors
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: aucthor
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: aucthour
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: auctor
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: auctour
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: auctoure
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: authour
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: authoure
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: autor
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: autour
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: autoure
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: authors
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: authoring
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: authored
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: authored
pos: verb
tags: past
form: aucthor
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: aucthour
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: auctor
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: auctour
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: auctoure
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: authour
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: authoure
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: autor
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: autour
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: autoure
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: The originator or creator of a work, especially of a literary composition; or, one of the creators of a collaborative work.
pos: noun
examples: The copyright of any original writing belongs initially and properly to its author.
Have you read any Corinthian authors?
This paper has three authors.
Eternal King; thee, Author of all being.
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[…]
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
[Jean] Twenge […] isn’t necessarily a household name like her sometimes collaborator Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and the author of the megahit “The Anxious Generation,” which has spent 75 weeks hovering near the top of the New York Times best-seller list.
"The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins," the authors wrote.
gloss: The initial owner of the copyright to a work, especially a work made for hire or a work of corporate authorship.
pos: noun
tags: US
examples: The author named on the copyright registration for the Android robot is Google Inc.
gloss: Someone who writes books for a living.
pos: noun
gloss: Principal; the primary participant in a crime.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: We hear […]of fratricidal murders, and stern reprisals on their authors.
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.
gloss: One's authority for something: an informant.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: 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 […]
'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.
gloss: The creator or cause of anything.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: 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 about with its little eyes for the author of its hurt.
gloss: To create a work as its author.
pos: verb
tags: US
proscribed
sometimes
Related words: auteur
authority
authorization
authorisation
authorship
Derived words: 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
multiauthor
nonauthor
overauthor
reauthor
Suethor
Translations: