printer's devil
- noun
- /ˈprɪntərz ˈdɛvəl/
- Archaic
:
aprendiz de imprenta
- Many famous authors began their journeys as a printer's devil, gaining hands-on experience in the world of publishing.
Examples
-
Seth, the printer's devil, threw himself toward a cupboard beside the press and flung it open.
Fiction book (1992) -
To leap ahead, let me record that on April 14 he got a job as a printer's devil, and by April 18 was working as a stock clerk.
Fiction book (1995) -
Albert Sommerville had joined Bailey's at fourteen years as a printer's devil, and long before Annabelle had taken over at the helm.
Fiction book (1990) -
At the age of fifteen, he started his career as a printer's devil in a local print shop, learning the basics of typesetting.
-
During his apprenticeship as a printer's devil, she learned how to operate the printing press and organize printing materials.
Surface Forms
Morphology
printer's + devil
Although the components are recognizable ('printer' and 'devil'), the overall meaning 'an apprentice in a printing establishment' is historical and idiomatic rather than a compositional combination of those words. The use of 'devil' as an occupational label is unpredictable from its literal sense (a supernatural being), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would not reliably infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Printer's devil may come from old print shops where young helpers did the dirty jobs and often got covered in black ink. Because the word devil showed their black, messy look and printer's shows they worked in the shop, the name came to mean 'an apprentice who helps in a printing shop'.
