printer's devil
printer's devil noun: an apprentice printer.
Noun
printer's devil (plural printer's devils or printers' devils)
- An apprentice printer.
- The latest of the personal magazinettes to come under our observation is The East Side, a peculiarly New York product, of which Zoe Anderson Norris, of 338 East Fifteenth street, is printer's devil […]1909, The Independent, volume 67, page 711
Forms of printer's devil
| plural | printer's devils |
|---|---|
| plural | printers' devils |
Origin of printer's devil
Of unclear etymology. The most widely accepted theories are that apprentice printers were often covered in ink, giving them a demonic appearance, or that they were responsible for errors in manuscripts and thus associated with Titivillus, the supposed devil of scribal errors. See Wikipedia for further details.
Words formed from printer's devil
Questions about printer's devil
- What does printer's devil mean?
- Printer's devil means an apprentice printer.
- What part of speech is printer's devil?
- Printer's devil is a noun.
- What is the plural of printer's devil?
- The plural of printer's devil is printer's devils.
Words near printer's devil in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: printer's devil (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “printer's devil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/printer%27s_devil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.