Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman auctor, auctur, autor, auttor, auttour, autur, actor, actur, Anglo-Norman and Middle French auctour, autour, actour, Middle French aucteur, auteur, autteur, autheur, acteur (French auteur , †aucteur , †autheur ) writer of a book or other work (c1150 in Old French as actor , in early use chiefly with reference to ancient Greek and Roman writers), creator, originator, source, person or thing which gives rise to something (second half of the 12th cent., originally and frequently with specific reference to God as the creator of the universe), the writings of an author collectively (first half of the 13th cent.), authority, informant (c1235 or earlier in Anglo-Norman in an apparently isolated attestation, 1546 in continental French), ancestor, parent (14th cent.), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin auctor person with authority to take action or make a decision, guarantor, surety, person who approves or authorizes, person who has weight or authority, spokesperson, representative, advocate, supporter, adviser, witness, expert, writer regarded as an authority, originator, source, mover or proposer, person or thing responsible, prime mover, initiator, cause, agent, creator, divine creator, builder, inventor, person who has written a book, founder, ancestor < auct- , past participial stem of augēre auge v. + -or -or suffix. Compare Old Occitan autor, autre (both 12th cent.), Catalan autor (13th cent.), Spanish autor (second half of the 12th cent.), Portuguese autor (14th cent.; 13th cent. as †outor), Italian autore (c1260), also Middle Dutch auctore, auctoer (Dutch auteur), German Autor (late 15th cent.; in early use frequently with Latin inflectional endings), all in senses ‘creator, inventor’ and ‘writer of a book or other work’.Form history. Forms with medial -ct- and forms with medial -t- are both attested in French early on (from the 12th cent.), the former (compare the α. forms) showing a learned borrowing < Latin. Similar forms with medial -ct- are found in other Romance and Germanic languages; compare e.g. Spanish †auctor (second half of the 12th cent.), Portuguese †auctor (14th cent.), Italian †auctore (13th cent.), early modern German auctor (16th cent.). The γ. forms are paralleled in French at a similarly early date (from the late 12th cent.), as well as in other Romance languages. They reflect the post-classical Latin confusion of auctor and actor actor n., which resulted in a partial semantic overlap of their reflexes both in French and in several other Romance languages. The δ. and ε. forms reflect the frequent association of the word, in French as well as English and other European languages, with classical Latin authenticus, its etymon Hellenistic Greek αὐθεντικός (see authentic adj.), and related words, the author of a document being viewed as the guarantor of its authenticity. Forms in -er , -ere show suffix substitution (compare -er suffix¹). Pronunciation history. The modern standard pronunciation with medial /θ/ is a spelling pronunciation resulting from the δ. forms. It is securely attested from at least the early 17th cent. (Robert Robinson, 1617; other early modern grammarians all give /t/: see E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunciation 1500–1700 (ed. 2, 1968) II. §442). Specific senses. Sense author n. arose from confusion with actor n. 2; compare the etymological note at actor n., and discussion of the γ. forms above.

Etymology: < author n. Compare earlier authorer n. With revived use in the 20th cent. compare authored adj., authoring n.