scriptor

English

Etymology

From Latin scrīptor, to avoid the etymological link between author and authority.

Noun

scriptor (plural scriptors)

1. (literature) A writer, regarded as producing a work but not as providing its explanation (which is instead determined by the reader), according to the theories of Roland Barthes.
   • 2021, Vicent Cucarella Ramon, Benjamin Drew: The Refugee. Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada, page 44:

     Although this literary exercise has been used to question the validity of Drew's book, the little biographies he offered acquire a worthy literary dimension if read using Foucault's critique to the Barthesian scriptor.

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-?

Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreybʰ-

Proto-Indo-European *(s)kréybʰeti

Proto-Italic *skreiβō

Latin scrībō

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin scrīptor

From scrībō (“to write”) + -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈskriːp.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈskrip.tor]

Noun

scrīptor m (genitive scrīptōris, feminine scrīptrīx); third declension

1. writer, author
2. scribe

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	scrīptor	scrīptōrēs
genitive	scrīptōris	scrīptōrum
dative	scrīptōrī	scrīptōribus
accusative	scrīptōrem	scrīptōrēs
ablative	scrīptōre	scrīptōribus
vocative	scrīptor	scrīptōrēs

Derived terms

• scrīptrīx

Related terms

• scrība
• scrībātus
• scrīnium
• scrīptilis
• scrīptiō
• scrīptiōnālis
• scrīptitō
• scrīptiuncula
• scrīptōrium
• scrīptōrius
• scrīptula
• scrīptum
• scrīptūra
• scrīptūriō
• scrīptus

Descendants

• Aromanian: scriitor
• Catalan: escriptor
• Emilian: scritåur
• French: scripteur
• Friulian: scritôr
• Italian: scrittore
• Portuguese: escritor
• Romanian: scriitor
• Romansh: scriptur
• Spanish: escritor

References

• “scriptor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “scriptor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "scriptor", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “scriptor”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • later writers: scriptores aetate posteriores or inferiores
    
  • an historian: rerum scriptor
    
  • we read in history: apud rerum scriptores scriptum videmus, scriptum est
    
  • a writer of tragedy, comedy: scriptor tragoediarum, comoediarum, also (poeta) tragicus, comicus
    
  • a writer of fables: scriptor fabularum
    
  • the work when translated; translation (concrete): liber (scriptoris) conversus, translatus
    
  • the writer, author: scriptor (not auctor = guarantor)
    
  • the book contains something... (not continet aliquid): libro scriptor complexus est aliquid
    
  • our (not noster) author tells us at this point: scriptor hoc loco dicit
    
  • the text of the author (not textus): verba, oratio, exemplum scriptoris
    
  • a legislator: legum scriptor, conditor, inventor