writer
nounUK /ˈɹaɪ.tə(ɹ)/ · US /ˈɹaɪ.təɹ/
Etymology 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”).
7 senses
- 1A person who writes, or produces literary work; an…
- 2Anything that writes or produces output.
- 3The seller of an option.
- 4A clerk of a certain rank in the service of the East…
- 5An ordinary legal practitioner in Scottish country towns.
- 6A petty officer in the United States navy who keeps the…
- 7A graffiti artist.
1
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.
3 more examples
- the present writer (referring to oneself as the writer)
- 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.1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv, page 298:
- 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.1946 May and June, J. Alan Rannie, “The Midland of 35 Years Ago”, in Railway Magazine, page 200:
2
Anything that writes or produces output.
- If the writer is set to autoflush mode, then all characters in the buffer are sent to their destination whenever println is called.2001, Cay S. Horstmann, Gary Cornell, Core Java 2: Fundamentals, page 715:
4
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.
5
Scotland An ordinary legal practitioner in Scottish country towns.
6
US A petty officer in the United States navy who keeps the watch-muster and other books of the ship.
7
Slang A graffiti artist.
- 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.2003, Jonathan Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 443:
- 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.2008, Lisa Gottlieb, Graffiti Art Styles: A Classification System and Theoretical Analysis, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 77:
- Derived terms
53 terms
braillewriter, CD writer, checkwriter, chequewriter, cocket writer, copy writer, copywriter, cowriter, cyberwriter, fanwriter, food writer, gagwriter, ghost writer, ghostwriter, hackney writer, hymnwriter, hyperwriter, inkwriter, letter writer, manifold writer, microwriter, multiwriter, newswriter, nonwriter, playwriter, psalmwriter, scorewriter, screenwriter, scriptwriter, signwriter, sketchwriter, skywriter, slate writer, songwriter, space writer, speechwriter, sports writer, sportswriter, subwriter, technical writer, telewriter, typewriter, wreader, writercraft, writerdom, writeress, writerish, writerless, writerling, writerly, writer's cramp, writership, writress- Related terms
- write, writing, philosopher, scientist, scholar, narrator, storyteller, fabulist, editor, copyeditor, literature
- Hypernyms
- person, creator, originator
- Hyponyms
77 terms
allegorist, annalist, aphorist, authoress, bard, belletrist, biographer, blogger, chronicler, columnist, commentator, correspondent, cowriter, critic, diarist, drafter, dramatist, editorialist, elegist, encyclopedist, epicist, epigrammatist, essayist, feuilletonist, fictioneer, fictionist, ghostwriter, glossarist, hack, hackney writer, historian, hymnist, idyllist, journalist, journo, lexicographer, litterateur, librettist, lyricist, memoirist, monodist, monographer, novelist, obituarist, pamphleteer, penwoman, playwright, poet, poetess, polemicist, prosaist, publicist, pundit, reporter, revuist, satirist, scenarist, scholiast, sketchwriter, sonneteer, speechwriter, sportswriter, screenwriter, scribbler, scrivener, songwriter, space writer, technical writer, tragedian, versifier, zodiographer, logodaedalus, wordman, wordmonger, wordsman, wordsmith, wordster