One who sets language down so it outlasts the saying. The writer makes the record possible.
Old English writere (one who writes), from writan (to write, scratch, incise) plus the agent suffix -ere; the person who performs the act named by the verb, not a separate root of its own.
The one whose act of setting language down lets anyone absent from the saying still receive it afterward. A record exists here because a writer's words outlast the sitting they belong to, rather than fading when the speaking ends.