playwright
PLAY-ryt · noun
English
Origin
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.
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Journey
The word has stayed tied to its literal sense of someone who crafts plays.
Related words
Wright, the second half of the word, links it to other craft-titles like wheelwright and shipwright, all naming makers of a particular thing.