author的词源
英文词源
- author
- author: [14] Latin auctor originally meant ‘creator, originator’; it came from auct-, the past participial stem of augēre, which as well as ‘increase’ (as in English augment) meant ‘originate’. But it also developed the specific sense ‘creator of a text, writer’, and brought both these meanings with it into English via Old French autor. Forms with -th- began to appear in the mid 16th century (from French), and originally the-th- was just a spelling variant of -t-, but eventually it affected the pronunciation.
While the ‘writing’ sense has largely taken over author, authority [13] (ultimately from Latin auctōritās) and its derivatives authoritative and authorize have developed along the lines of the creator’s power to command or make decisions.
=> auction, augment - 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.
中文词源
来自法语autor, 父亲。词源同auct, 创造，增加。字母c脱落，又受希腊语影响添加字母h.
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：author 词源，author 含义。
作家是从事文学创作的，而author这个词正是“具有创造能力的”含义。它来自拉丁语的auctor，意思是“使得东西生长的人”。我们有时把某个作品比作“新苗”、“蓓蕾”，而作家们不正是培育新苗、花朵的人吗？
拉丁语动词augeo, augere, auxi, auctus(增加,扩大)还有"创造"的意思;其过去分词词干-auct-派生的拉丁语名词auctor, -oris, m(创造者,作家)经由古法语autor进入英语;"创造者","作家"首创的力量发展为"权威","批准","授权","官方"等意义。-th-的拼写是-t-的变体,它最终影响了发音。
词根词缀： auth(-auct-)增加→创造 + -or名词词尾,行为
