[ryanschneider]

One more wrinkle: authorization starts with “author” but in computer security is no longer about who wrote the data but rather if they are allowed to. It has its origin in “to determine the author of” but the modern usage is at least twice removed from that, in that it’s really checking if the _token_ was written by the _system_ not if the user was the content author.

[dredmorbius]

Author stems from the same Latin root as authority, namely auctor, meaning "master, leader, author".

<https://www.etymonline.com/word/authority>

<https://www.etymonline.com/word/author>

So an author is one who creates, but also a "source of authoritative information or opinion".

Confusingly, authentic seems to have a different etymology, *autos "self" (see auto-) + hentes* "doer, being".

<https://www.etymonline.com/word/authentic>

So to authenticate an author as an authority derives three meanings from two separate roots.

[franky47]

I see it more about having the "authority" semantic root, ie: who has the authority to act on something.