Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Author

Au′thor (a̤′thẽr), 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 anything; hence, the efficient cause of a thing; a creator; an originator.

Eternal King; thee, Author of all being. Milton.

2. One who composes or writes a book; a composer, as distinguished from an editor, translator, or compiler.

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors. Johnson.

3. The editor of a periodical. [Obs.]

4. An informant. [Archaic] Chaucer.

Au′thor (a̤′thẽr), v. t. 1. To occasion; to originate. [Obs.]

Such an overthrow . . . I have authored. Chapman.

2. To tell; to say; to declare. [Obs.]

More of him I dare not author. Massinger.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.