筆者
ひっしゃ · hissha · JLPT N2 · noun
author
✒️ 筆 = pen + 者 = person, so a pen-person: a writer
The same 者 (person) suffix appears in 作者 (sakusha, author), where 作 means make. Both words name the person who produces the writing.
者 — old/elder 耂 + say 曰
Originally depicted sugarcane or a similar plant, but the form was reanalyzed as 耂 (old) over 曰 (say). It became a grammatical suffix meaning 'one who…' or 'the…thing,' nominalizing verbs and adjectives. Today 者 mainly marks agents or categories, as in 学者 'scholar' or 记者 'reporter.'