author

author
author
1. noun. An author is a male or a female writer; authoress is widely regarded as depreciatory or even offensive. when used by men, although women writers still use it occasionally of themselves

• (The authoress would like to dedicate this story to her father —website, AmE 2004 [OEC]).

2. verb. The verb is 16c, some two centuries later than the noun, and has been used both transitively and intransitively, although in current use it is typically transitive:

• Whenever the students thought they were evaluating the work of a man, they assessed it as far more impressive than when they thought it was authored by a woman —M. Ross, 1989

• During his professional career, he has authored more than 250 technical and marketing publications —Apply Magazine, AmE 2003.

Since the mid-20c this use of author has been greatly extended in AmE and BrE with reference to areas of activity outside the arts, such as sport and the cinema, and even crime

• (Pinochet's life over the past three years has been a miserable story of unending flight —from legions of prosecutors the world over determined to bring him to book for crimes he is alleged to have authored —Time Magazine, 2004).

Co-author, meaning to share authorship, is now common.
3. Authoring is a recent addition to the language of computing, and means ‘the process of creating multimedia documents for electronic publishing’:

• In order to profit from the possibilities of hypertext, teachers have to be provided with powerful authoring environments which allow them to create complex hypertexts. —Literary and Linguistic Computing, 1992.


Modern English usage. 2014.

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  • author — I (originator) noun architect, auctor, begetter, causer, composer, contriver, creator, deviser, discoverer, effecter, fabricator, founder, generator, inaugurator, initiator, innovater, institutor, introducer, inventor, maker, manufacturer,… …   Law dictionary

  • author — Ⅰ. author UK US /ˈɔːθər/ noun [C] ► the writer of a book, article, etc.: »He is a best selling author. »The author of the report said his findings were very worrying. ► a person who begins or creates something: »The authors of the proposal want… …   Financial and business terms

  • author — [ô′thər] n. [ME autour < OFr autor < L auctor, enlarger, author < augere, to increase: see WAX2] 1. a person who makes or originates something; creator; originator [“author of liberty”] 2. a writer of a book, article, etc.; often specif …   English World dictionary

  • Author — Au thor ([add] th[ e]r), n. [OE. authour, autour, OF. autor, F. auteur, fr. L. auctor, sometimes, but erroneously, written autor or author, fr. augere to increase, to produce. See {Auction}, n.] 1. The beginner, former, or first mover of… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Author — Au thor ([add] th[ e]r), v. t. 1. To occasion; to originate. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Such an overthrow . . . I have authored. Chapman. [1913 Webster] 2. To tell; to say; to declare. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] More of him I dare not author. Massinger.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • author — ► NOUN 1) a writer of a book or article. 2) a person who originates a plan or idea. ► VERB ▪ be the author of. DERIVATIVES authoress noun authorial adjective authorship noun …   English terms dictionary

  • author — 1 *maker, creator 2 *writer, composer …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • author — [n] composer of written work biographer, columnist, composer, creator, essayist, ghost, ghostwriter, ink slinger*, journalist, originator, playwright, poet, producer, prose writer, reporter, scribbler*, scribe, scripter, word slinger*, wordsmith …   New thesaurus

  • Author — Authorship redirects here. For the use in academia, see Academic authorship. For other uses, see Author (disambiguation). An author is broadly defined as the person who originates or gives existence to anything and that authorship determines… …   Wikipedia

  • author — {{Roman}}I.{{/Roman}} noun ADJECTIVE ▪ best selling ▪ prolific ▪ famous, well known ▪ published ▪ Her ambition was to become a published …   Collocations dictionary

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