Cowriting

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The act of jointly composing a text or document with others ; the process of collaboratively creating written content ; the cooperative effort in producing a piece of writing together
2. Working together with one or more individuals to produce written material ; engaging in shared authorship of textual works ; participating in the mutual creation and development of documents
3. The practice of multiple contributors combining efforts to generate written work ; forming a partnership in the crafting of texts ; collaborative writing involving collective input and revision

Etymology: The word is a straightforward compound: the prefix "co-", meaning "with" or "together", attached to "write". "Co-" traces back through Latin "con-" and "co-" to a Proto-Italic form, ultimately from the same ancient root that gave Latin "cum", "together with". English took the prefix productively, so "co-" now sits on countless verbs, from "co-operate" to "co-star". "Write" is the older part of the story. It descends from Old English "wrītan", which originally meant to scratch or carve letters into a surface, not to compose on paper. That physical sense of incising marks is still visible in the word's deep history, even though no one now thinks of writing as carving. Put together, "cowrite" simply means to write something jointly, and the gerund form names the activity of doing so. Its shape is transparent, so there is little hidden in it beyond the two parts.

Synonyms: collaborative writing, joint writing, coauthoring, coauthoring, co-composing