writer

English edit

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writer

Etymology edit

From Middle English writer, writere, from Old English wrītere (“draughtsman; painter; writer; scribe; copyist”) and ġewritere (“writer; composer”), equivalent to write +‎ -er and writ +‎ -er. Cognate with Icelandic ritari (“clerk, secretary”), Faroese ritari (“clerk, secretary”).

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪ.tə/, [ˈɹ̠aɪtə]
- Audio (UK) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪ.təɹ/, [ˈɹ̠ăɪɾɚ]
- Audio (US) (file)
(Canada, Inland Northern American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪ.təɹ/, [ˈɹ̠ʌɪɾɚ]
Rhymes: -aɪtə(ɹ)
Homophone: rider (accents with flapping but without Canadian raising)

Noun edit

writer (plural writers)

A person who writes, or produces literary work; an author can refer to themselves as "the writer".
Has your girlfriend written you another letter already? She’s quite a writer!

I met some of my favourite authors at the writers' convention.

the present writer (referring to oneself as the writer)
- 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed [by Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv, page 298:
  Beautie alone is a ſoveraigne remedy againſt feare,griefe,and all melancholy fits; a charm,as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirme,a banquet it ſelfe;he gives inſtance in diſcontented Menelaus that was ſo often freed by Helenas faire face: and ^hTully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chiefe patron of this Tenent.
- 1946 May and June, J. Alan Rannie, “The Midland of 35 Years Ago”, in Railway Magazine, page 200:
  Though the writer has striven to dwell on aspects that have passed, or are passing away, it will be apparent that many features of Midland practice have been adopted as standard for the L.M.S.R. and other railways.
Anything that writes or produces output.
- 2001, Cay S. Horstmann, Gary Cornell, Core Java 2: Fundamentals, page 715:
  If the writer is set to autoflush mode, then all characters in the buffer are sent to their destination whenever println is called.
(finance) The seller of an option.
(historical) A clerk of a certain rank in the service of the East India Company, who, after serving a certain number of years, became a factor.
(Scotland) An ordinary legal practitioner in Scottish country towns.
(US) A petty officer in the United States navy who keeps the watch-muster and other books of the ship.
Synonyms: ship writer, ship's writer
(slang) A graffiti artist.
- 2003, Jonathan Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 443:
  Writers were reunited with their crews, none having seen each other since back in the day, since they'd spun from teenage affiliations into lives more burdened and serious.
- 2008, Lisa Gottlieb, Graffiti Art Styles: A Classification System and Theoretical Analysis, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 77:
  Two aspects of style co-exist in graffiti art, as explained in chapter 2. There is a writer's personal style, and there is iconic style, or style as convention.