playwright
(ˈpleɪraɪt)
[f. play n. + wright.]
A professional maker or author of plays; a dramatist.
| 1687 M. Clifford Notes Dryden iv. 16 Wherein you may..thrive better, than at this damn'd Trade of a Play-wright. 1715–16 Pope Let. to Blount 21 Jan., Horace's rule for a play may as well be applied to him as a Play wright. 1877 Dowden Shaks. Prim. v. 49 Shakspere's powers as a rising playwright must have been recognised. |
Hence ˈplaywrightess (nonce-wd.), a female dramatist; ˈplaywrighting, ˈplaywrightry (nonce-wd.), the action or occupation of a playwright.
| 1831 Carlyle in Froude Life (1882) II. viii. 171 Various playwrightesses and playwrights. 1851 Fraser's Mag. XLIV. 624 What is this but play-wrightry? 1896 Godey's Mag. Feb. 186/2 Literary feeling is not everything in playwrighting. 1928 Publishers' Weekly 16 June 2445 Francis Brett Young, not content with writing distinguished novels and poems, has turned his attention to playwrighting. 1966 Punch 10 Aug. 230/1 Those grand old ample days of playwrighting when plots were clear and motives required no hard brainwork. 1973 E. Bullins Theme is Blackness 12 In the area of playwrighting, Ed Bullins, at this moment in time, is almost without peer in America. |