Word
authorship
Phoneticsau·thor·ship
US/ˈɔθɝˌʃɪp/
UK/ˈɔːθəʃˌɪp/
Definition
n. the state of being the person who wrote a book, article, or document. It can also mean the origin or source of an idea or piece of work.
n. the fact or position of being the creator of a written work or idea. Often used in legal or academic contexts to discuss the attribution of intellectual property.
Examples
“The professor questioned the authorship of the student's essay.”
“New evidence has emerged that challenges the traditional authorship of several plays previously attributed to Shakespeare.”
“Determining the true authorship of the anonymous pamphlet required a detailed stylistic analysis of the vocabulary and sentence structures used throughout the text.”
Examples
simple
“The professor questioned the authorship of the student's essay.”
contextual
“New evidence has emerged that challenges the traditional authorship of several plays previously attributed to Shakespeare.”
complex
“Determining the true authorship of the anonymous pamphlet required a detailed stylistic analysis of the vocabulary and sentence structures used throughout the text.”
Usage
Often appears in the phrase 'disputed authorship' or 'joint authorship'.
Real-World Examples
“The scientific research integrity specialist has been tracking shadowy organisations known as “paper mills”, which turn a profit by offering fraudulent academic authorship of scientific papers, IP registrations and other scholarly outputs.” “Paper mills sell authorship positions and, in some cases, complete ready made scientific papers.” Etymology
From author + -ship.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/authorship