著者
ちょしゃ · chosha · JLPT N3 · noun
writer
✍️📚 著者 = write (著) + person (者): the person who wrote it
著 means to write or publish, as in 著作 (a written work). 者 means a person who does something, as in 学者 (scholar). So 著者 is the person behind the writing: the author.
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.'