#By #ByLine #HighwaysAndByways #WrittenBy #ISwearByAllThatsGoodAndHoly #SwearByTheStarsOfTheHeavens #ByTheLight

The true sense of the word "By" is– strange, as Etymonline only lists the root that means |Around (as in the "Next to"-meaning of 'By'); but I don't see any indication of the 'Accrediting'-meaning of 'By' (the 'Written by, Edited by, Broadcast by'-meaning) ---

But it does mention that 'to Swear by something-or-someone' used 'by' to mean "In the Presence of." 

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I'll ask Etymonline's author about it, but for now I'll suppose that 'that's the root meaning of that form of "by" to'—that–when someone says something was done- or said- or written-by someone–the true sense of what they are saying is 'that the person was just around the area where the work was being done!'