Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
authors [aw-therz] EXAMPLES|WORD ORIGIN noun (used with a singular verb) a card game for two or more persons that is played with a 52-card pack, the object being to take the largest number of tricks consisting of four cards of the same denomination. Liberaldictionary.com
Origin of authors 1865–70, Americanism; plural of author author [aw-ther] noun a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist. the literary production or productions of a writer: to find a passage in an author. the maker of anything; creator; originator: the author of a new tax plan. Computers. the writer of a software program, especially a hypertext or multimedia application. verb (used with object) to write; be the author of: He authored a history of the Civil War. to originate; create a design for: She authored a new system for teaching chemistry. Origin of author 1250–1300; earlier auct(h)or Latin auctor writer, progenitor, equivalent to aug(ēre) to increase, augment + -tor -tor; replacing Middle English auto(u)r Anglo-French, for Old French autor Latin, as aboveRelated formsau·tho·ri·al [aw-thawr-ee-uh l, aw-thohr-] /ɔˈθɔr i əl, ɔˈθoʊr-/, adjectiveau·thor·less, adjectivemul·ti·au·thored, adjectivepro·au·thor, adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019 Related Words for authors producer, creator, writer, columnist, journalist, composer, poet, reporter, biographer, ghost, originator, playwright, scribe, scribbler, wordsmith, essayist, scripter Examples from the Web for authors Contemporary Examples of authors
Their authors promise that your spirit will be improved, your ambition honed, and your finances maximized by their advice.
Can Self-Help Books Really Make a New You?
Lizzie Crocker
December 29, 2014
The authors categorized responses that indicated a misunderstanding of possible benefit as “germs are germs” beliefs.
Without Education, Antibiotic Resistance Will Be Our Greatest Health Crisis
Russell Saunders
December 19, 2014
And despite the good scholarship the authors have managed to retain the buoyancy and upbeat air attendant on most comics.
The Best Coffee Table Books of 2014
Robert Birnbaum
December 13, 2014
One of the few English authors he admired was Samuel Richardson.
Nick Romeo
November 27, 2014
Some of the authors most revered by their contemporaries now languish in relative obscurity.
Nick Romeo
November 27, 2014
Historical Examples of authors
We gather this simply from the opinions we had previously formed of the authors.
A Theological-Political Treatise [Part II]
Benedict of Spinoza
Protect our authors by prohibiting the sale of works written by foreigners.
Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 8, May 21, 1870
Various
It is not the purpose of the authors to discuss the subject pro or con.
W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell
Our audience doesn’t pay any attention to authors, so that won’t matter.
St. John G. Ervine
I have met with the word in French authors, but never could assign any idea to it.
Henry Fielding
British Dictionary definitions for authors author noun a person who composes a book, article, or other written workRelated adjective: auctorial a person who writes books as a profession; writer the writings of such a personreviewing a postwar author an originator or creatorthe author of this plan verb (tr) to write or originate Derived Formsauthorial (ɔːˈθɔːrɪəl), adjectiveWord Origin for author C14: from Old French autor, from Latin auctor author, from augēre to increase Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for authors author n.
c.1300, autor “father,” from Old French auctor, acteor “author, originator, creator, instigator (12c., Modern French auteur), from Latin auctorem (nominative auctor) “enlarger, founder, master, leader,” literally “one who causes to grow,” agent noun from auctus, past participle of augere “to increase” (see augment). Meaning “one who sets forth written statements” is from late 14c. The -t- changed to -th- 16c. on mistaken assumption of Greek origin.
…[W]riting means revealing onesself to excess …. This is why one can never be alone enough when one writes, why even night is not night enough. … I have often thought that the best mode of life for me would be to sit in the innermost room of a spacious locked cellar with my writing things and a lamp. Food would be brought and always put down far away from my room, outside the cellar’s outermost door. The walk to my food, in my dressing gown, through the vaulted cellars, would be my only exercise. I would then return to my table, eat slowly and with deliberation, then start writing again at once. And how I would write! From what depths I would drag it up! [Franz Kafka] author v.
1590s, from author (n.). Revived 1940s, chiefly U.S. Related: Authored; authoring.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
