auctorial

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The Word of the Day for December 18 is: 

auctorial   \awk-TOR-ee-ul\   adjective
          : of or relating to an author
 

Example sentence:
          "The capacity to tell a plain tale is the greatest of the auctorial 
gifts." (Anthony Burgess, _Homage to QWERT YUIOP_)

Did you know?
          In ancient Rome, auctioneers, grantors, and vendors were known as 
"auctors." The title is based on the Latin verb "augere," meaning "to promote" 
or "to increase." The word "auctor," which was also used for a person who 
creates something, passed through Anglo-French and Middle English, eventually 
evolving (somewhat perplexingly) into the Modern English word "author." English 
writers dug up "auctor" again in the early 19th century to form the adjective 
"auctorial." The coinage was a somewhat surprising one, given that the word 
"authorial" had been firmly established in English for over a quarter of a 
century. Today, "authorial" is the more common of the two words, but modern-day 
wordsmiths continue to put "auctorial" to use on occasion.





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