different between author vs founder

English

Alternative forms

• authour (obsolete)
• auctor (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English auctour, from Anglo-Norman autour, from Old French autor, from Latin auctor, from auge? (“to increase, originate”). The h, also found in English autheur, is unetymological as there is no h in the original Latin spelling. The OED attributes the h to contamination by authentic.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???.??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??.??/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /??.??/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /???.t??/
• Rhymes: -????(r)
• Hyphenation: au?thor

Noun

author (plural authors)

1. The originator or creator of a work, especially of a literary composition.
   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]

   • 1755, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language Preface

     The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

   1. (with definite article: "the author") I, me. used in academic articles instead of a first-person pronoun.
   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]

2. Someone who writes books for a living.
3. (obsolete, criminal law) Principal.
4. (obsolete) One's authority for something: an informant.
   • 1699, Seven new Colloquies translated out of Erasmus

     Let me inform you en passant, Ladies, that those Villains the Heathens, as my Authors tell me, (and I thought it wou'd^[sic] not be amiss to communicate such a nice Observation to this House) used to call our Saviour Chrestus, and not Christus, by way of Contempt and Derision […]

Synonyms

• (creator of a work): bookwright, creator, artist, subcreator, fabulator, writer

Derived terms

• authoress, authress
• author of life

Related terms

• authorization or authorisation
• authority
• authorship
• auteur

Translations

Verb

author (third-person singular simple present authors, present participle authoring, simple past and past participle authored)

1. (chiefly US, sometimes proscribed) To create a work as its author.

Derived terms

• authorable

Translations

Anagrams

• Hotaru

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?au?.t?or/, [?äu?t???r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?au?.tor/, [???u?t??r]

Noun

author m (genitive auth?ris); third declension

1. (proscribed) Alternative form of auctor

Declension

Third-declension noun.

References

• author in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  auctor in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• auctor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette, page 184f.

Middle English

Noun

author

1. Alternative form of auctour

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?fa?nd?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?fa?nd?/
• Rhymes: -a?nd?(?)
• Hyphenation: found?er

Etymology 1

From Old French fondeur, from Latin fund?tor.

Noun

founder (plural founders, feminine foundress)

1. One who founds or establishes (especially said of a company, project, organisation, state)

2. (genetics) Someone for whose parents one has no data.

Antonyms

• (one who founds): ruiner

Derived terms

• cofounder

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French fondeur, from Latin fundo (“pour, melt, cast”)

Noun

founder (plural founders)

1. The iron worker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 161.

     The term 'founder' was applied in the British iron industry long afterwards to the ironworker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.

2. One who casts metals in various forms; a caster.

   a founder of cannon, bells, hardware, or printing types

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle French fondrer (“send to the bottom”), from Latin fundus (“bottom”)

Noun

founder (plural founders)

1. (veterinary medicine) A severe laminitis of a horse, caused by untreated internal inflammation in the hooves.

Translations

Verb

founder (third-person singular simple present founders, present participle foundering, simple past and past participle foundered)

1. (intransitive) Of a ship, to fill with water and sink.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but we saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea.
2. (intransitive) To fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse.
3. (intransitive) To fail; to miscarry.
4. (transitive, archaic, nautical) To cause to fill and sink, as a ship.
   • 1697, William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World, Volume I, page 82

     We found a strong Tide setting out of the Streights to the Northward, and like to founder our Ship.

   • 1744, William Smith, A New Voyage to Guinea, page 167, quoted in The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds Of The Slave Trade, Robert Harms, 2008

     "I was amazed when we came among the breakers (which to me seemed large enough to founder our ship), to see with what wondrous dexterity they carried us through them, and ran their canoes on the top of one of those rolling waves […] "

   • 1932, Hart Crane, "From haunts of Proserpine" (Review of Green River: A Poem for Rafinesque, James Whaler

     But still more disastrous was the storm which foundered his ship in Long Island Sound, swallowing within call of shore his fifty boxes of scientific equipment, his books, manuscripts and funds, the results of years of devoted labor.

5. (transitive) To disable or lame (a horse) by causing internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs.

Translations

Usage notes

Frequently confused with flounder. Both may be applied to the same situation, the difference is the severity of the action: floundering (struggling to maintain position) comes first, followed by foundering (losing it by falling, sinking or failing).

Anagrams

• Neudorf, fonduer, refound

Old French

Etymology

From Latin fund?.

Verb

founder

1. (late Anglo-Norman) Alternative spelling of funder

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-d, *-ds, *-dt are modified to t, z, t. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.