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printer's devil

noun

Etymology

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.

Definitions

  1. 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 […]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for printer's devil. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA