different between forerunner vs author

English

Etymology

From Middle English forrenner, foreriner. Calque of Latin praecursor (“one who runs before, a forerunner”). Equivalent to fore- +? runner and/or forerun +? -er.

Noun

forerunner (plural forerunners)

1. A runner at the front or ahead.
2. (sports) By extension, a non-competitor who leads out the competitors on to the circuit, or who runs/rides the course prior to competitor trials, usually testing or checking the way.
3. A precursor or harbinger, a warning ahead.
4. A forebear, an ancestor, a predecessor.

   Bakelite is a forerunner of today's plastics.

5. (philately) A postage stamp used in the time before a region or area issues stamps of its own.

Translations

References

• Middle English Dictionary

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