playwright

Playwright comes from play plus wright, an old word for a builder or craftsman. So the term literally casts the dramatist as someone who constructs a play, the way a wheelwright builds wheels.

The facts don't describe a shift in meaning — the word has stayed tied to its literal sense of someone who crafts plays.

Wright, the second half of the word, links it to other craft-titles like wheelwright and shipwright, all naming makers of a particular thing.