Etymology

auteur

au·teur
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Today it means: 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. Full definition →

French auteur
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The story

  1. French · borrowed fromauteur“author”
  2. English todayauteur

Borrowed 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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.