auteur
English
editEtymology
editBorrowed from French auteur (“author”). Popularised by François Truffaut in the 1954 essay “Une certaine tendance du cinéma français” (“A certain tendency in French cinema”) in the influential film journal Cahiers du Cinéma as the phrase “la politique des Auteurs”. Doublet of author.
Pronunciation
edit- (General American) IPA(key): /oʊˈtɝ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɔːˈtɜː/, /əʊˈtɜː/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: au‧teur
- Homophone: hauteur
Noun
editauteur (plural auteurs)
- A creative artist, especially a film director, seen as having a specific, recognisable artistic vision, and who is seen as the single or preeminent ‘author’ of their works.
- 1974 February 11, William Bender, “Call to vespers”, in Time:
- The libretto was a piece of hack work from a Parisian scenario factory run by an enterprising auteur of sorts named Eugene Scribe.
- 2003 April 24, “Broadway is bigger than ever”, in The Economist[1]:
- Since Mr Luhrmann first tackled the opera, he has entered the select circle of celebrity directors on the basis of only three films, including “Moulin Rouge”. And his “La Bohème”—designed by Mrs Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, a double Oscar-winner for “Moulin Rouge”—is avowedly the work of an auteur.
- 2008, Rosanna Maule, Beyond Auteurism: New Directions in Authorial Film Practices in France, Italy and Spain Since the 1980s, Intellect Books, →ISBN, page 90:
- Ginette Vincendeau describes the cinéma du look as a typical example of ‘mainstream co-optation’ of ‘avant-garde, artisanal, or auteur’ cinema (1996: 14).
- 2011 June 23, Jane Graham, “Terrence Malick to Woody Allen – the directors actors will kill to work for”, in The Guardian[2]:
- If a widely respected auteur such as Martin Scorsese, Allen or Malick has given you the stamp of approval, you might not live fast or die young, but you'll leave a good-looking legacy.
- 2025 May 10, Leila Abboud, “France awaits Depardieu verdict that will define state of MeToo movement”, in FT Weekend, page 3:
- The cult of the auteur has weakened, as symbolised by the reconsideration of rock star Bertrand Cantat, frontman of the band Noir Désir, who was convicted in 2004 of beating his girlfriend to death.
- 2025 May 29, Alissa Wilkinson, “‘The Phoenician Scheme’ Review: Benicio Del Toro Plans to Save His Soul”, in The New York Times[3], →ISSN:
- That all of these screen luminaries apparently just popped to Anderson’s set for a day to film a tiny scene is indicative of where the auteur stands at this point in his 31-year career.
- 2025 June 11, Ben Sisario, “Brian Wilson, Songwriter and Leader of the Beach Boys, Dies at 82”, in The New York Times[4], →ISSN:
- At the same time, the round-faced, soft-spoken Mr. Wilson — who didn’t surf — became one of pop’s most gifted and idiosyncratic studio auteurs, crafting complex and innovative productions that awed his peers.
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editTranslations
edit
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Verb
editauteur (third-person singular simple present auteurs, present participle auteuring, simple past and past participle auteured)
- To work as an auteur.
Further reading
editDutch
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editBorrowed from French auteur, from Middle French autheur, from Old French autor, from Latin auctor, auctorem.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editauteur m (plural auteurs, diminutive auteurtje n, feminine autrice)
Derived terms
editDescendants
editFrench
editEtymology
editInherited from Middle French autheur, from Old French autor, from Latin auctor, from Proto-Italic *auktōr, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg-, from *h₂weg-.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editauteur m or f (plural auteurs, feminine autrice or auteure or (rare) auteuse or (rare, dated) authoress or auteuresse or auteuresse)
Derived terms
editDescendants
edit- Mauritian Creole: oter
- → Dutch: auteur, autheur (obsolete)
- → English: auteur
- → Portuguese: auteur
- → Romanian: autor
See also
editFurther reading
edit- “auteur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Portuguese
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from French auteur. Doublet of autor.
Noun
editauteur m (plural auteurs)
- auteur (creative artist)
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ewg-
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- Dutch terms borrowed from French
- Dutch terms derived from French
- Dutch terms derived from Middle French
- Dutch terms derived from Old French
- Dutch terms derived from Latin
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Dutch/øːr
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -s
- Dutch masculine nouns
- nl:Occupations
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms derived from Proto-Italic
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂weg-
- French terms derived from Latin
- French terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ewg-
- French terms inherited from Middle French
- French terms inherited from Proto-Italic
- French terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- French terms derived from Middle French
- French terms inherited from Latin
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:French/œʁ
- Rhymes:French/œʁ/2 syllables
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- French feminine nouns
- French nouns with multiple genders
- Portuguese terms derived from Middle French
- Portuguese terms derived from Latin
- Portuguese terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ewg-
- Portuguese terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Portuguese terms borrowed from French
- Portuguese terms derived from Old French
- Portuguese terms derived from French
- Portuguese terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Portuguese terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂weg-
- Portuguese unadapted borrowings from French
- Portuguese doublets
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese masculine nouns